The Midvale Girls
by a-delacroix
Summary: The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers. This story is a sequel to the flashback scenes in the Supergirl Season 3 Episode 'Midvale'. Kara will become Supergirl at age 15 and the present day portion of the TV show is assumed to exist in an alternate timeline.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This story probably works best if you consider the 2007 flashback scenes of _Supergirl_ Season 3 Episode 6 _Midvale_ to be the pilot for a new and different series called _The Midvale Girls_. This story starts three days after the events in the flashback. Kara is 15 and Alex has only recently turned sixteen. Kara will come out as Supergirl at 15 and everything set in the present day in the TV show will be considered to have occurred in an alternate timeline.

And, as always, I make no claims to ownership of these characters.

 **The Midvale Girls**

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

 **Metamorphosis**

Chapter 1

Part 1

The day started like most other days – with a sharp knock at the bedroom door. It was followed by a familiar voice and familiar words, "Girls, it's time to get up or you'll be late for school!"

At that point things took an unusual turn. Instead of retreating down to the kitchen like she normally did, Eliza Danvers opened the door and took a step inside. She was already fully dressed in cream colored slacks, a white blouse, and had a teal sweater tied across her shoulders and hanging down her back like a miniature cape. She had always been more of a morning person than either of the girls, but today she seemed to have an extra bounce to her step and a glint in her eye like she had already finished her second cup of coffee.

She waited a moment for both girls to struggle up to more or less seated positions in their respective beds before speaking again.

"I've been talking to Clark on the phone," she began.

That got their attention. They both sat up straighter.

"After what happened to Kenny and the events with the sheriff," she continued. "Clark thought the two of you might like to get out of town for a little while. He suggested you come visit him for Thanksgiving."

Alex and Kara exchanged glances. Surprise was written over both of their faces. Since Superman had dropped Kara off with the Danvers nearly two years earlier, they had only seen him five times. It had always been at their house and he had never stayed for more than two hours. Now he was suggesting they come to Metropolis for a long weekend?

"Technically," continued Eliza, realizing both girls were too startled to say anything at the moment. "You'll be spending the nights at his friend Chloe's place, as he apparently has just a small efficiency apartment and no room for a couple of teenaged girls. However Chloe's place doesn't sound much bigger as he said you will need to bring your sleeping bags."

Alex remembered the conversation she had had only days earlier with her friend Josie in the girls' restroom at school. She had made sharp, almost cruel comments about statutory rape with regards to Josie's relationship with Mr. Bernard. She knew in her heart Clark would never do anything inappropriate, but appearances were important to all-American Superman and probably to Clark, too. He would doubtlessly feel more comfortable if they _did_ stay with his friend Chloe, even though neither she nor Kara had ever met the woman and had only exchanged a handful of emails with her.

"But Thanksgiving is in only three days!" exclaimed Kara, managing to find her voice first. She had never been to Metropolis and the thought excited her. But she wished she had time to research the best things to see and do while there and then decide on the appropriate clothing to bring. Not that she had a huge closet full of things to choose from; mostly she just had things appropriate for school or outdoor activities on the weekend. And fall weather in Metropolis was probably a lot colder than Midvale and would further limit those choices. Oh, the cold didn't affect her personally, she could run around on the coldest day of the year in a bikini with no discomfort, but she could hardly blend in if she was in tee shirt and shorts and everyone else was wearing winter coats. She definitely would have to check the weather forecast.

"Actually, you will be leaving right after school tomorrow. I'll take care of arranging for your absence from classes on Wednesday. I'm sure you won't be the only students starting the holiday a little early."

Alex glanced at Kara and saw she had donned her glasses and her face was creased in a thoughtful expression, probably already planning what she wanted to do and what to wear. The other girl always seemed to need to be ten times more organized than her. One glance at Kara's side of the room versus Alex's made that obvious.

But Alex forced her attention back to the current conversation and the question which had immediately popped into her head on her mom's announcement of their trip, "Is Clark coming to fly us to Metropolis?" She had flown a few times with Kara, but certainly they had never traveled all the way across the country.

Eliza smiled, but shook her head _no_. "You'll be flying, but the old fashioned way. You have seats on the Tuesday night red-eye out of National City. The flight leaves at 11 P.M. With the flight time and the time zone difference, you'll get into Metropolis at 8 A.M. on Wednesday. Your return flight leaves Metropolis Sunday at 4 P.M. and gets back into National City at 7 P.M. We'll need to leave right after school tomorrow to get you to the airport on time, so you'll have to pack tonight. I think you need to limit yourselves to one backpack each. It is only five days and four nights."

"You're not coming with us?" asked Alex. Since Kara had arrived, they had rarely left Midvale. Usually, about twice a year, they made a day long expedition to National City to go shopping, but Eliza never seemed to let Kara or her out of her sight for even a moment. Before the start of school this year, the three of them had done a long weekend in San Francisco, but again she had rarely let the girls out of her sight. Now, she was suddenly letting them fly across the country alone?

"Not this time, Jeremiah's parents are driving up for Thanksgiving and I think it's best if I don't cancel on them."

For at least a few moments, while the idea of traveling to Metropolis sank in, Alex had been able to set thoughts of her father aside. It had been almost a year since they had learned he had died in a plane crash and he had been gone even before that on some mystery job that had started only a few short months after Kara had arrived.

Jeremiah had been an only child and his parents had been nearly as devastated by his death as she and her Mom. And they were both well into their upper-seventies. She could understand why her Mom felt a commitment to see them even if the girls were going to be in Metropolis.

At least Eliza had two brothers and a sister and they all lived near her Mom in Central City. Eliza's father had passed away many years ago, before Alex had been born.

"Well?" asked Eliza with a raised eyebrow.

Alex and Kara shared another glance - this time both of their faces were sporting big grins.

"We're in," they said in near perfect unison, sounding more like twins than a human and an alien who frequently could barely tolerate each other's presence.

"Good. That's settled then. And I think Clark even mentioned something about tickets to see _Wicked_ Friday night and I'm sure he'll find some other fun things to do," said Eliza. Then with a mock stern voice she added, "You better get your asses in gear, young ladies. If you're late for school, the whole trip may need to be canceled."

Alex beat Kara to the bathroom and it almost looked like she was the one capable of super-speed.

Part 2

An electronic chime sounded and everyone around them began climbing out of their seats and opening the overhead bins. Alex and Kara unbuckled their seatbelts and then took a moment to pull out their earbuds, wrapped the wires around the Ipod Shuffles they had each received the previous Christmas, and jammed the small electronic devices into their jean pockets before grabbing their coats off of the seatbacks to join the others waiting for the airplane's door to be opened.

Kara had never flown on a human plane before and Alex hadn't flown since she was a much younger kid. They had both been so excited neither of them had gotten much sleep during the six hour flight even though the lights had been dimmed and nearly everyone around them had quickly nodded off.

Alex gestured towards their backpacks in the overhead bin and the man who had been sitting next to her pulled them down and handed them to her. After giving him a nod of thanks, she handed Kara hers, and then she shrugged into her own. With the rolled sleeping bag strapped tightly against its bottom, it felt like she should be heading to a youth hostel somewhere in Europe rather than to Metropolis.

She had been dreaming for a while about backpacking across Europe the summer between high school and college, but so far she hadn't found the courage to raise the topic with her Mother. But perhaps, if this little trip went smoothly, it would be the first step towards convincing her Mom she could be trusted.

But then bringing up the topic wasn't hugely urgent yet since she was less than halfway through her sophomore year.

By the luck of the draw, her birthday fell near the beginning of September. While she could have started school at the age of four, her parents had decided to hold her back a year, so now she was one of the oldest in her grade. She had been the first of any of her friends to turn sixteen and the first of any of them to get her license. Not that it did her much good since she didn't have a car of her own. Her Mom had said if she got a job this coming summer, she would be willing to front her the money for a used car. Her mother was a firm believer in teaching her daughter fiscal responsibility.

When Kara had first joined their family, they had needed to decide what grade she should be in. With the whole different length of years on Krypton and then her long sojourn in the Phantom Zone; her exact age in Earth-years was a little nebulous. She was probably a bit more than a year younger than Alex, but Jeremiah and Eliza had decided to use July 26th of the year after Alex was born as her birthday for official documentation. That made her one of the youngest sophomores at school, but kept the two girls in the same grade so Alex could keep an eye out for Kara until she adjusted to school life. Many times, Alex wished Kara had been placed in the class behind her, but it had been out of her control.

After an interminable time, which in truth couldn't have been more than four minutes after the _fasten seatbelt_ sign had turned off, the door finally opened and people slowly began to make their way off – first class first, since they were closest to the front of the plane. They hadn't been sitting anywhere near the front, as Eliza would consider such an expense entirely frivolous. No, they were sitting right over the wing, which Eliza said was statistically the safest spot. As long as she was sitting next to Kara, Alex thought any spot was probably equally safe. But she hadn't bothered to raise that point with her Mom. She certainly wasn't going to rock the boat and potentially get the trip cancelled over something as unimportant as where they were seated.

The movement in the line of people had almost reached their position when Alex did a last scan of the people behind them. Ever since they had left home, she had been getting this feeling that someone was watching her - in the car, in the terminal back in National City, even on the airplane. It came and went in an almost maddening fashion. She had suspected it might be the FBI agent who had come to their house the previous week. She hadn't been home at the time, but Kara had described the woman to her – tall and fit with shortish brunette hair and she had been wearing a crisp black suit. If the FBI knew about Kara, it made sense they would keep her under surveillance when she left Midvale. But Alex hadn't noticed anyone who matched that description. Nor had she seen anyone who struck her as a stereotypical government agent like she had seen in countless TV shows and movies. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching her.

It was only another couple of minutes before they were clear of the plane and had almost reached the end of the boarding ramp.

"Remember, Kara," said Alex quietly. "We need to follow the signs to the Baggage Claim area, where Clark is supposed to meet us."

Kara, who had been walking alongside, glanced up at the slightly taller Alex. "Thanks, I needed the reminder after Eliza told us that at least fifteen times during the drive to the airport and at least another four times before saying good bye. _Not_."

Alex almost blushed. Kara was right. Her Mom had reminded them of that at least a dozen times. She decided her concerns about someone following them had her unusually rattled.

Alex leaned slightly closer to Kara and said at barely a whisper, knowing the other girl would have no problem hearing her. "Sorry. I've just had this feeling we are being watched ever since we left home. It has me a little spooked. Have you noticed anything unusual?"

Kara's eyes widened and then started to dart around. Then, when even her head started to swing, Alex grabbed her arm.

"Don't look around," hissed Alex a little louder.

"If I don't look around, how can I see if someone is following us?"

"It seems most likely, if someone is keeping us under observation, it would be someone like that government agent who visited you last week. Can you do your mojo thing and see if anyone is carrying a gun besides the TSA agents?"

They had by now exited the boarding ramp and were passing through the seating area filled with people waiting to board the plane to travel to its next destination. Kara angled their course over to a nearby water fountain. After taking a quick drink, she pulled off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes for a moment. Then she lifted up on her toes and swept her gaze around as though looking for someone in particular. After fifteen seconds she dropped back down and slid her lead-lined glasses back into place.

She gestured in the direction most of the people from the plane were streaming and quickly set off with Alex in tow.

"I didn't see anyone carrying guns who shouldn't. And I didn't see Agent Niell. Do you still feel like someone is watching us?" asked Kara, her voice also staying at a whisper.

"Not right this minute. It comes and goes. But it has definitely happened at least four or five times since we left home."

"Well, I'll try to keep an eye out. And if you get the sensation again, let me know."

Alex nodded. She hated to put a damper on things, but her skin had definitely crawled on several occasions in a way she had never felt before.

They hiked steadily down the concourse towards the distant baggage claim area. There were sliding walkways, but after being cooped up on the plane for six hours, they both enjoyed hiking along parallel to the slower moving slideway.

Metropolis International was one of the nation's busiest airports, which also meant it was one of the largest. From the maps they had seen hanging from the ceiling along their path at regular intervals, it had eight long concourses radiating out from a central terminal building. Of course, their flight had arrived near the farthest end of one of the concourses. They had to have passed at least forty gates, most of them busy with Thanksgiving-related traffic, before reaching the main hub. Alex never felt any further sensation of being watched.

"There," exclaimed Kara, pointing slightly to their left.

Alex saw the sign for _Baggage Claim_ then and it was above a wide set of descending escalators. The baggage claim was on the lower level.

They rode the escalator and then scanned the area. Baggage from their flight was supposed to be arriving at carousel A7, which was where they would most likely find Clark. They spotted the sign for carousels A6 – A8 at the same time.

They had covered less than half the distance to the indicated group of carousels when Kara pointed ahead. "I see him." She quickly accelerated from a walk to a jog.

After tightening the straps on her backpack, Alex picked up her pace to stay with the other girl, doing her own search of the crowd ahead while dodging around people heading in the same direction but who were moving at a more sedate speed. She didn't immediately spot Clark, but wasn't surprised. With all of her special gifts, Kara should be able to pick out another Kryptonian long before she did.

Abruptly, Alex spotted him, mainly because he was walking towards them and moving in the opposite direction of most of the people heading towards the carousels to pick up their stuff.

Clark was dressed in much the same fashion as the few other times she had seen him. He was wearing a light green plaid shirt, a black tie, and black jeans that looked slightly dressier than blue jeans. Over the top he wore a light weight white canvas jacket due to the late fall weather. His attire, along with his glasses, which were of a style similar to Kara's, made him look at the natty end of the professional spectrum.

He stood a little over six feet and was well built, but certainly not like some comic book character with an impossible seventy-five inch chest paired with a twenty-six inch waist like Thor or Spiderman or a plethora of others. Well, Alex had to admit, he did have the chiseled jaw-line, dimpled chin, and piercing blue eyes which graced the faces of many a comic book superhero.

"How was your flight?" asked Clark after Kara pulled back from the tight hug she had thrown as soon as she had reached him.

"Long and boring!" exclaimed Kara. Alex just shrugged.

"Do you have all your stuff or do you have some checked luggage?" asked Clark once he had prised his way free from Kara.

"Just what we're carrying," replied Alex with a gesture towards her backpack.

"Great," said Clark. He pointed towards a row of doors off to his left. "The subway into town is that way. Have you called Eliza to let her know you've arrived safely?"

Alex and Kara shared a chagrin glance. They had promised to call as soon as the plane touched down.

"Ah, I'll call her now," said Alex, pulling her phone from her pants pocket.

"Okay, then we might as well be on our way," said Clark. Then he frowned briefly before adding. "I had hoped to have the day off, so we could sightsee, but while I was on my way here my boss called with a last minute assignment. I hope you don't mind a stop at the Metropolis Institute of Technology. I just need to do a quick interview with one of the professors; it shouldn't take over an hour. And, if I remember correctly, they do have some public tours available that could keep you occupied. After that, we can do an early lunch and then swing by Chloe's place to drop off your things."

Alex had scrolled through her contact list until she had highlighted her Mom's entry. She was just about to hit the call button when she paused and glanced over in Clark's direction. "Are you and Chloe an item?"

The few times they had met, Clark had talked very little about his normal life. He had mostly talked about his adventures as Superman or provided cautionary tales to Kara about the risks and perils of being a Kryptonian living among humans. But if they were going to spend most of the next five days together, he was going to have to share a little more about his life here in Metropolis. And this question about Chloe seemed like as good of a place to start as any.

Clark smiled, but shook his head. "We've been friends since we went to High School together back in Smallville. We dated, very briefly, when we were sophomores, but we ended up just being good friends."

"And does she know your secret?" Alex asked in an inaudible whisper, knowing both of her companions would have no trouble hearing.

"Yeah, she and a couple of others back home. No one else here knows," Clark paused and briefly displayed a wistful expression before adding, "But there is someone I've been thinking about telling recently."

"Give, Cuz," said Kara with a playful jab of her elbow at his side. It had taken her a long time to come to terms with how Clark was the full grown adult version of the infant Kal she had bounced on her knee when her family had traveled from Argo City to Kryptonopolis to visit her father's brother. From her perspective, when she had first met Superman upon arriving on Earth, it had only been six weeks since she had last seen the infant version of him. But now, after several years, it was finally getting a little easier.

"Okay, okay. Her name is Lois and she just started working at the paper a couple of months ago. She's smart and beautiful and tough as nails."

"And are we going to meet her?"

"She invited me over for Thanksgiving Dinner. Her father, who's an Air Force General and her little sister, who's about the same age as you guys, are in town. I explained about your visit and she said the two of you are more than welcome."

"Have you met her father or sister before?" asked Kara.

"Ah, no. I've just seen the photo of them she keeps on her desk."

"So, did you mainly invite us to Metropolis as moral support for this dinner?" asked Alex.

"Well, I'll admit that may have been a small part of it. But you both are growing up and deserve to see a little more of the world than just remaining cooped up in a little town like Midvale. I know I wish I had had someone to visit in Metropolis back when I was your age."

Alex and Kara shared a quick grin. Clark was so busted. The strongest man in the world was nervous about meeting a potential girlfriend's father and needed some back up.

"Sure, Clark, we'll be happy to go to Thanksgiving Dinner at Lois' place," replied Alex for the both of them. "Now, I better do a quick call to Mom before we reach the subway where I might not get a signal."


	2. Chapter 2

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 2

"Wow, that has to be Gotham City across the bay," remarked Kara, pointing into the distance. She almost blurted out that the view reminded her of the view from the ancient Imperial tower on Starhaven, but quickly thought better of it. Alex hated when she talked about all the exotic places she had visited when she had still been living back on Krypton and more than once implied she was bragging. And perhaps she sometimes had when the two of them had been going through one tiff or another. But she was here to enjoy the time away from Midvale and didn't want to start another fight with Alex.

Therefore, instead, she added, "Do you think Clark knows Batman?"

Alex glanced around, worriedly, even though she knew they were alone. They were on the observation deck on the 70th floor of the Metropolis Institute of Technology tower. It provided a clear view of much of central Metropolis, as well as the bay and across it, the second most famous city on the East Coast. From what the placards said, the next level up bristled with astronomical and meteorological devices.

Apparently, the day before Thanksgiving was not a popular day to hang out at the Institute. Only a few people had been milling about in the museum and gift shop on the main floor. And they had ridden the express elevator up alone only to discover this public space, which could easily hold fifty people and which was lined with the familiar coin-operated binocular viewers, was utterly empty.

Alex turned her thoughts to Kara's question. On the few occasions they had met with Clark before, he had never mentioned anything about Batman. Perhaps it was another thing to asked Clark when they were safely alone. Of course, even if he did know him, he might not acknowledge the fact. Superheroes probably had many reasons to maintain secrets.

"I have no idea. I do remember reading stories that Batman lined his cowl with lead so Superman can't use his x-ray vision to identify him."

Kara wasn't certain if Alex was being serious or not. Yes, lead would block Superman's special vision, but she knew if she was determined to learn Batman's secret identity, she could figure a way to do it without needing to see through his mask. She would simply wait to spot his masked figure out in public and then track him from a high altitude until he returned to his lair or whatever he called his secret base. Once she knew that location, it shouldn't be too difficult to determine his identity.

And Clark could easily do the same. Of course, it wouldn't be Superman's style to spy on someone out of simple curiosity. She abruptly remembered how she had stormed down into the boys' locker room to confront Jake Donahue when she had thought he had been responsible for Kenny's death. She had basically roughed up and humiliated the boy in front of his friends and teammates. She couldn't imagine Clark doing anything like that. How did he always manage to keep his temper in check and do the _right_ thing? She needed to learn how he did it before she carelessly used her own great strength to hurt someone.

"Actually, Superman does know. Or at least he will, eventually," remarked a boy's voice, seemingly from right behind them.

Kara and Alex spun around. They had both scanned the room barely ten seconds earlier and there had been no one there. They hadn't heard any _ding_ associated with the elevator arriving or the sound of its doors opening. The only other way in or out was via an emergency exit on the far side of the space, which could only be opened from the inside and was alarmed. And even if the boy had made it through that door, he still would have had to have moved at a dead run to reach their position in the handful of seconds since they had turned back to the window. Surely, Kara and probably even Alex would have heard him if he had been running.

So how had he gotten there? And had they said anything that would reveal secrets that weren't theirs to blab?

Quickly, they took in the boy. He had a mop of medium brown hair somewhere between Kara's light brown and Alex's dark brown. He looked about fourteen, certainly younger than Alex and possibly even younger than Kara. And he was outlandishly dressed in a skin-tight black body suit with a white panel down the chest that gave it a quasi-tuxedo look. Around his waist was a black belt with small pouches along the sides. The front of the belt was held together by a large gold buckle shaped like a stylized capital L inside an oval circle. The outfit was something no boy they knew would be caught dead wearing.

"Who are you?" demanded Kara, taking a step forward to place herself between this stranger and her sister. She might be an alien and merely adopted into the Danvers family, but right this minute she definitely considered Alex her real sister and she would do whatever was needed to protect her.

"I'm Lyle Norg of the Legion of Super-Heroes," he paused almost as though he expected a spark of recognition at this announcement. "I've traveled back from the 31st Century because we need your help, Miss Danvers." He was looking Alex directly in the eyes when he said the second part.

"My . . . My help? You must be mis . . . mistaken, I'm just a girl," stuttered Alex. If he truly was who he said he was, and since she personally knew Superman she was more inclined to believe him than the typical girl on the street would, she figured he must be here for Kara.

"Oh, oh, I know that reference," he said with a grin. Then he continued with his voice pitched higher in approximation of a girl's, " _I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her._ Notting Hill is one of the few classics that survived from this era. Brainy can recite the whole thing, word for word. Say, you wouldn't know where I could get a copy before we head back? Even with all he could do to enhance it, the quality of our only copy is pretty bad."

Why was he babbling about an old movie like _Notting Hill_ , wondered Alex, now even more confused. She had enjoyed it when it first came out, when she was like seven or eight, but she wouldn't even pause on it now if she crossed it while channel-surfing.

Kara was still operating in protective-sister mode and tried not to be distracted by his non-sequitur. "How can we know you are who you say you are? And how did you get right up next to us without my noticing?"

Lyle glanced briefly in Kara's direction, but his attention was still focused on Alex when he replied. "I've been tracking you for over twelve hours trying to find a time when you were alone so I could speak to you."

"I knew someone has been watching me," exclaimed Alex in triumph, before realizing this boy might be a lot more dangerous than some FBI agent like she had suspected.

"As far as how I got here without your noticing?" he paused, dramatically, and then simply vanished. Ten seconds later, as the girls were wildly looking about, he reappeared about ten feet to their left. "Well, my superhero moniker isn't _Invisible Boy_ for nothing. I simply rode the elevator up with you."

He walked back over. "Now, Alex . . . ah . . . you don't mind if I call you Alex? Anyway, Brainy and Dream Girl both say we need your help. And while singly they are rarely wrong, when they both agree it is almost a certainty, which is why I've been sent to fetch you."

"Me? But I'm just a girl," Alex reiterated. She glanced at Kara. If they needed help from a Danvers girl, surely it must be Kara. If the boy was truly from a thousand years in the future, perhaps their information about their family was just as sketchy as their knowledge about old movies. But she wasn't about to _out_ Kara's Kryptonian nature.

"If you really need help from someone of this era, we do know Superman," interjected Kara. She wasn't much more enthused to reveal her secret than Alex was. But the existence of Superman and his abilities was common knowledge.

Lyle turned more fully in Kara's direction. "Supergirl, you are welcome to come along, too, if that makes you feel more comfortable. I'm sure you can pass the initiation test to join the Legion. But it is Alex's help we really need."

"Sup . . . Supergirl?" echoed Kara and now she found herself stuttering in surprise like Alex had done earlier.

"You are Superman's cousin from Krypton, right? That makes you Supergirl. Or haven't you assumed the moniker yet? I'm a little hazy on the specific date you picked up the superhero mantle."

Alex and Kara shared yet another glance. What the hell was going on? It was sort of logical if Kara was going to be a superhero that she would use that title, but Clark and the Danvers had all said she needed to live a normal human life.

"But why me?" asked Alex again. She knew in her heart that Kara would probably one day follow in Clark's footsteps, but she had no personal delusions on that front. She was _just a girl_.

"I'm not at liberty to say until we return to 3008. Okay, truthfully, I don't know. It's Brainy's turn to be in charge at the clubhouse, or at least until some of the other legionnaires make it back, assuming they survive. He told me I needed to fetch you and I merely saluted and said _Aye, Aye, sir_."

"Clubhouse?" asked Kara.

"It's what we call headquarters," Lyle explained, trying to sound more patient than he was really feeling. These girls asked way too many questions. Of course, that meant they would probably fit right in with some of the others.

"And Brainy?" asked Alex.

"Ah that would be Brainiac 5. His real name is Querl Dox. He's a Coluan cyborg from the planet Colu. He is really fond of saying he's a twelfth level intelligence, but truthfully, he doesn't seem that much smarter than the rest of us. Okay, he did design the time bubble for time travel, but, still, I think sometimes he comes across a little too much like a braggart."

"You expect us to just drop everything and go with you?" demanded Kara. She was familiar with the name Brainiac from the history classes before she left Krypton. He had destroyed Krypton's capital city, Kandor, and his actions may have, at least in part, contributed to the destruction of the planet. "Clark is expecting us to meet him down in the lobby in fifteen minutes."

Lyle waved his hands. "Time travel, remember? You come with me now and save the 31st Century. Then I can return you back to this exact time and place. Superman need never know you've been gone."

Kara looked at Alex and realized she was wavering. "I don't know. The only Brainiac I know was evil incarnate."

"That was a thousand years ago. Okay, I guess it's not a thousand years ago from your perspective, but Brainy is nothing like that. He has single-handedly saved the Earth at least twice and while he has been working with the Legion, the team has saved it at least a half dozen more times.

"The Earth is in trouble again and he says there is a 78% chance we will fail this time without Alex's help. Now, granted, by the 31st Century humanity is spread across the 5,000 member worlds of the United Planets, so it's not like we are talking the death of the human race, but Earth is still the ancestral home of mankind and the home to forty-three billion people. Do you really want their deaths on your conscience? What kind of superheroes are you?"

"We aren't any kind of superheroes," Kara exclaimed at almost a shout. "We are just a couple of small town girls making their first trip to Metropolis."

"Kara," said Alex quietly. "What if we really can make a difference? I mean, look at what we went through to find Kenny's killer. Wouldn't you have been willing to go through that again, and even more, if it meant we could have saved him? It may be too late for Kenny, but if we can truly make a difference to the fate of the planet, don't we have to at least try?"

Kara knew Alex was right, but she had always thought saving the planet was Clark's job. She was just supposed to enjoy being an ordinary girl. But obviously fate had different plans for her. For them.

She sighed. "Okay, how do we do this?"

Lyle grinned. Brainy had calculated it would take at least two and probably three meetings to get Alex to agree. Now he could do a little bragging of his own to Brainy when he got back.

"Easy-peasy," Lyle replied. He pulled something the size of a golf ball from a pouch on the right side of his belt and twisted and turned it like a Rubik's Cube for about ten seconds. When he was done, an eight-foot diameter silvery sphere abruptly appeared about twenty feet from where they were standing. The sphere shimmered for a few seconds before fading away to leave a complicated looking machine occupying the lowest twenty percent of the space.

"This way, ladies," Lyle said while gesturing for them to follow him. Then he paused and opened another of the small pouches on his belt. He pulled out what looked like two small gold coins each about the size of a quarter. "I almost forgot. Take these and stick them at the top of your chest, right below your throat. They are universal translating devices. People up in the 31st speak a bunch of different languages and nobody speaks 21st Century English. They interact directly with your neural system. To you, everyone else will appear to be speaking in English. And when you speak in English, everyone else will hear you in theirs."

The girls took the devices gingerly. They appeared to be simple, unadorned disks. Alex glanced at Kara and the other girl just shrugged. If this Lyle intended them harm, there were probably easier ways than these disks. Kara pulled the neck of her tee down a couple of inches and touched the device to her skin. It was self-adhering. When nothing particular happened to her, she gestured for Alex to do the same.

By this time, Lyle had climbed atop the machine and was looking expectantly towards them.

The girls grabbed their backpacks from where they had been leaning against the panoramic window. Then, as they moved towards the waiting platform from the distant future, Alex unconsciously reached out and clasped Kara's hand. After taking a deep breath, she stepped up onto the machine. Kara was only a half-step behind.

Once he was certain they were within the envelope of the time bubble, Lyle twisted the control device through another pattern. Within seconds, the silvery sphere reappeared, only this time they were seeing it from the inside. Less than ten seconds later the sphere faded away and the observation deck was, once again, as quiet and empty as it had been for most of the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 3

Traveling a thousand years via the time bubble wasn't instantaneous like Alex and Kara had expected, not that they had any reason to expect that since neither of them had ever traveled through time before. They were left standing on the small silver platform surrounded by the silver sphere. There was nothing to see. The time bubble didn't have any visible controls or a display panel to watch or anything. It appeared to be entirely controlled by the small golf ball-sized device in Lyle's hand and even it didn't seem to have anything like a miniature display screen. Perhaps it had a neural interface only the boy could use. If he was from a thousand years in the future, the tech could seem like magic to them, as the old saying went.

"How long does it take to get there?" asked Alex after they had been standing there for at least a minute.

"It takes one minute per century, so about ten minutes to go from the 21st Century to the 31st Century," replied Lyle.

"Well, since we have a little time and we are definitely committed at this point, how about bringing us a little more up to speed? What is this Legion of Super-heroes you talked about? And what's your story?"

Lyle appeared to think for a moment, as though trying to decide where to begin. "Odd as this is going to sound, the Legion got its start as a Superboy fan club."

"Wait, Superboy? Who's Superboy?" asked Kara. She looked in Alex's direction since the other girl had been on Earth her entire life, but she just shook her head; she had no idea either.

"Obviously, he was Superman before he became an adult. Since the initial members of the club: Lightning Boy, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy were all teenagers, they had more of an affinity to Superboy than Superman."

"I have never heard of him being referred to as Superboy," said Alex in follow up to Kara's earlier comment. "He first appeared as an adult Superman six years ago, in 2001, during the nine-eleven tragedy when he prevented the fifth passenger jet from crashing into the Capitol Building. I was only ten at the time, but it was one of those moments where you will always remember where you were, the way older people talk about where they were when Challenger blew up or really old people talk about the first moon landing or the JFK assassination. I was at school and all the TVs were doing coverage of the World Trade Center when they cut to the action over D.C. where Superman lowered the crippled jet right onto the National Mall. That's the first anyone heard of Superman. There was no Superboy."

Lyle shrugged. "He only went by Superboy very briefly and he was only active around the Smallville area and he never got covered by the press beyond that immediate area. Anyway, the original Legion trio traveled back in time to meet him and then he traveled up to the 31st Century with them and most of his adventures while he was Superboy took place up there."

"Superman has never told me, ah, us, anything about this," stated Kara.

"It's dangerous to know too much about your future," said Lyle. "Before Superboy traveled back home, he voluntarily had his memories of the 31st Century suppressed."

"Are you going to do that to us? You should have mentioned that up front," replied Alex, panic filling her voice. She didn't want anyone messing with her mind; what if they accidentally took away her memories of her father? That's all she had left of him. She looked at Kara and she looked equally alarmed.

"That shouldn't be necessary. Knowing about the 31st Century isn't the issue. I mean, if you tell people you traveled to the future and you don't have any proof, no one is going to believe you, so that's not a problem.

"Knowing about your personal future is the problem. When Superboy first travelled up to the 31st Century, time travel was a new technology and no one thought through all the ramifications. Superboy was allowed access to historical records which showed what he would do later as Superman. That knowledge could have changed all of history, if he tried to avoid some prior mistakes and thereby initiated new, different ones – hence the need to suppress his memories. In your case, we simply wouldn't allow you access to that kind of historical information."

Alex was at least somewhat mollified. She was less certain about Kara, based on her expression, but part of it could just be that the conversation about Superboy had reminded her about how the boy had referred to her as Supergirl. Knowing she was going to be a superhero had to be preying on her mind.

To give Kara time for her thoughts, Alex turned back to Lyle. "Sorry about getting things sidetracked. You were going to tell us about the Legion?"

"Okay, so to join the Legion you have to demonstrate a superpower. As I mentioned, the three original members were Garth Ranzz, known as Lightning Boy, who can generate electricity, usually in the form of lightning bolts; Irma Ardeen, known as Saturn Girl, who has telepathic abilities; and Rokk Krinn, known as Cosmic Boy, who can generate and influence magnetic fields. Some of the members have natural superpower abilities and some, like me, used science to create theirs. In my case, I developed a chemical serum to gain my power of invisibility.

"The original trio used their special abilities to thwart an assassination attempt on trillionaire R.J. Brande. And that's when they began the transition from a simple fan-club to the Legion of Superheroes with Brande providing the initial financial backing. Over time, others have joined the Legion. Some, like me, are full-time members; others are only part-time members and are on-call when their unique skills are needed. I suspect since you will probably return to the 21st Century, the two of you will fall into this second category.

"The Legion is loosely affiliated with the Science Police, the military branch of the United Planets government. Mostly, we get involved when they run into problems that need our special abilities.

"As for myself, I was born on Earth, unlike many of our members who come from a number of different planets and some of whom are even from alien races, like Brainy. My father is a member of the Science Police. I've always had an interest in and a knack for xenochemistry. I was thirteen when I developed my invisibility serum and applied for membership with the Legion."

It looked like he was going to say more, but he abruptly glanced down at the small device in his hand. "Ah, we're here."

Alex and Kara were reaching down for their backpacks, which they had set by their feet, when the sphere flickered and vanished.

Alex was just starting to gaze around when Kara abruptly collapsed to her knees.

"I . . . I feel . . . strange . . . and . . . weak," Kara gasped out.

Alex herself felt perfectly fine as she dropped to her knees next to Kara. "What's happening to her?" she demanded of Lyle.

"That's part of the problem we're currently facing," explained Lyle as he moved to Kara's other side. "To neutralize our Kryptonian and Daxamite team members, the enemy turned the sun red during the first stage of their attack. I think it is just the abrupt removal of her abilities that caused this effect. Once she's adjusted, she should be okay, albeit with only normal human abilities. Let's get her into the clubhouse and then she can rest for a while."

Lyle draped Kara's left arm across his shoulders and once Alex realized what he was doing, she did the same thing with Kara's right arm. On a count of three, the two of them climbed to their feet, dragging Kara up with them. She hung almost limply, supporting very little of her own weight. Lyle reached down and grabbed Kara's backpack with his free hand, so Alex did the same with hers.

"We need to go this way," said Lyle, gesturing forward with his chin. "Fortunately, the clubhouse isn't far."

Alex finally had time to take a good look around. They appeared to be in the center of a sprawling park. A number of tall buildings were visible in the distance in pretty much every direction like the park was within some great city, but only one structure was nearby and in the direction Lyle had indicated. And it was completely unexpected and bizarre.

"That's the clubhouse?" asked Alex incredulously. Standing before them was a large structure that had to be a hundred feet in diameter and seven hundred feet tall. And it looked just like a 1950s idea of a spaceship, a cylindrical body with three long swooping tail fins. The truly odd part was that it was upside down and looked like it had slammed into the ground nose-first and had buried its nose to a depth of a hundred feet. Oh, and it was a bright neon-orange color.

"Yeah, it's modeled after the spaceship that originally brought Superboy to Earth. Well, the original clubhouse was. It was destroyed several years ago in an attack by Validus. The number of legion members had grown quite a bit by that time and they realized they needed a lot more space for labs and other things. Therefore, when it was rebuilt, it was scaled up to what you see now."

"And why is it bright orange?" asked Alex. "Back home, that color is reserved for emergency equipment."

"It's not orange. It is actually yellow. It just looks orange under the red sun."

Alex looked up. The sky was pale pink just like she had seen in photos from Mars. It reminded her a little of how the eastern part of the sky could look right before dawn, but the sun was high above and the entire sky was that color. And the sun itself was a brilliant red, just the way Kara had told her the Kryptonian sun had looked.

The time bubble had delivered them only two hundred feet from the clubhouse, so it didn't take them long to cover the intervening distance even with the burden of Kara and the backpacks. As they got close, a door slid open right at ground level. Alex happened to be looking right at the spot and hadn't seen a single sign of an edge or a seam before the door melted away and allowed them to see into the first chamber beyond. More futuristic tech, she assumed.

Just after they stepped across the threshold a boy and a girl came racing forward. With only a quick glance it was apparent neither of them was human.

The boy looked about fourteen and was thin, almost scrawny. But what set him apart were his bright green skin, yellow hair, and the three glowing orbs imbedded in his forehead. He was wearing a lavender outfit with black highlights. The lavender matched the color of his eyes.

The girl looked older, perhaps the same sixteen as Alex. She had dark brown hair like Alex's, but cut in a short bob. Her skin was pale, almost an albino white. However her eyes were her most alien feature, they were purple on the outer half and orange in the inner half. The irises covered the entire surface except for the central pupil, which was a vertical slit like a cat's. Her outfit, or perhaps superhero costume was a better term, was a form-fitting purple that left her midriff exposed. An orange cape hung from her shoulders and just kissed the floor. The purple and orange of her costume perfectly matched the purple and orange of her eyes.

Taking in the three people she had now met from the future as a group, Alex decided they sure liked bright, gaudy costumes here. She glanced down at her own more mundane attire of jeans, tee shirt, and leather jacket. Okay, the tee shirt was a concert tee from Justin Timberlake's _Future Sex_ Tour, so it was a little racy. She had wanted to go to the concert when Timberlake had been performing in National City six months earlier, but her Mom wouldn't let her even though several of her classmates, including Josie, had been allowed to go. She had paid Josie to get the tee and wore it as much as possible as a small protest against her mother.

"What happened? Were you attacked?" asked the green-skinned boy, breaking Alex's reverie.

"No. This is Supergirl. I think she is just having a bad reaction to the red sun," replied Lyle.

Kara moaned out, "I'll be okay, I just need a moment." It definitely looked like she would need more than a moment.

"I think I can help," said the green-skinned boy. He got a look of concentration on his face. A moment later, the doorway to the outside sealed back up. Then structures near the ceiling of the compartment morphed into a new shape and then began to spew forth a brilliant yellow light.

Instantly, Kara began to feel better. Not quite like her old self, but definitely a lot better. She got her feet under her and then lifted her arms from where they had been still draped over Alex and Lyle.

"I've configured the lights to better match the sun's original wavelength," said the boy. "It's not enough to restore your full strength, but it should make it more comfortable for you while you're in the clubhouse."

"Thanks . . . ah?"

"This is Querl Dox, but we all call him Brainy," said Lyle by way of introduction. Then he turned to the new girl. "And this is Luornu Durgo from Cargg. Her superhero moniker is Triplicate Girl."

"Triplicate Girl?" asked Alex.

Luornu took a step back. Then, in a manner that was impossible to describe accurately, she stepped apart into three separate identical girls who could have been triplets. "Everyone from Cargg can split themselves into three identical bodies due to Cargg having three suns. But our three bodies share one mind which allows us to communicate instantly over any distance."

Alex for a moment wished she had that ability; then one of her could be at school while the other two parts of her could be playing hooky.

"Are you okay, Supergirl?" asked Brainy in Kara's direction.

"Yeah, I'm fine now. But please call me Kara. No one has ever called me Supergirl until Lyle showed up looking for Alex's help. And I really haven't done anything to earn the Supergirl title."

"Okay, Kara it is," replied Brainy. Then he turned in Alex's direction and stuck out his hand. "You must be Alex Danvers. I'm so glad to meet you and that you agreed to help us. I'm sure you're wondering what we need from you."

Alex took the offered hand. She was a million times more curious than his simple words implied.


	4. Chapter 4

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 4

"Come on, we can talk along the way," said Brainy before turning and heading off at a brisk walk.

Alex looked at Kara. She appeared to be mostly her old self again. Kara moved to follow the green boy and she didn't seem to be having any trouble keeping up and had even grabbed up her backpack with one hand. After slipping hers back on, Alex started moving, too. She quickened her pace to a jog to catch up. Once the boy saw they were able to keep up, he also increased his pace.

"Where are we going?" asked Alex, as they passed out of the entry room and entered another that was filled with workbenches covered with a variety of equipment, some looked chemical, some looked electrical, and she had no idea what some of it was.

"The hangar level," replied Brainiac 5. "The spaceship is prepped and standing by."

"Spaceship?" echoed Alex, her step faltering for a moment. "Why do we need a spaceship? Where are we going?"

"You need to go to the world of Venegar because that's where the Emerald Eye of Ekron is located."

"How far away is that?" asked Alex, unable to keep the trepidation out of her voice.

"Seventy-three thousand light-years, give or take. But the distance isn't important with the hyper-dimensional drive. It will take thirty-seven minutes to get there whether the distance is five light-years, seventy-three thousand, or all the way to the next galaxy."

Seventy-three thousand light-years. Alex's calculus wasn't strong, but she had done well in AP Physics. She understood what a light-year was well enough to know it was a very, very great distance. And Brainy wanted her to travel seventy-three thousand freaking light-years.

They were already a thousand years from home, but at least they were still on Earth. Traveling half way across the galaxy shouldn't be any more intimidating, but somehow it was.

Alex ground to a halt, forcing the others to stop with her.

"I . . . I don't think I can do this," she said with a shake of her head.

Brainiac 5 looked at her for a moment, but his eyes seemed to be looking straight through her as though at something in the far distance. He appeared to be lost in thought. Or perhaps it was like when he reconfigured the lights in the first room and his attention was temporarily elsewhere.

Finally, after about five seconds, his eyes came into focus. "Alex, we need your help. Every minute we delay increases the odds that the Earth gets destroyed."

"I'm sorry. I just don't understand what is going on and it is suddenly overwhelming. I mean barely twenty minutes ago I had never heard of the Legion of Superheroes or the 31st Century. Now I'm here and you want me to travel halfway across the galaxy." Alex usually wasn't overly emotional, but now she almost felt ready to cry.

Brainy looked to Lyle. "What did you tell them about the situation?"

"Me? I didn't tell them anything, because you didn't tell me anything. Don't put this situation on me."

Brainy let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay. Let me give you the two minute synopsis. But can we at least keep walking while I explain?"

Alex closed her eyes for five seconds as she fought back tears, took a couple of deep breaths, and then nodded. "Okay, but I haven't agreed to anything."

"Fair enough," said Brainy and then he started walking. "The interstellar warlord Mongul is carving a path of destruction across the galaxy. He has managed to gain control of an ancient Sun-Eater, a device that can destroy stars. It was created by a long forgotten race millions of years ago. It envelops a star, absorbing all its solar energy. This causes the star to compress in size but doesn't significantly reduce its mass. As a result, the dying star, regardless of its original size, goes supernova. The Sun-Eater harnesses most of the nova-blast's thermal energy to travel to its next destination, but the remainder is still enough to fry all of the star's planets.

"Mongul has already used it to destroy six United Planet stars, which is how we've learn as much as we have about how the Sun-Eater works. His next target is the Earth's sun and he will be in position to deploy the Sun-Eater in three days."

"What does this have to do with me going to a planet halfway across the galaxy? You said its name was Venegar, right?"

"Yeah. Based on my research, Mongul has to be controlling the Sun-Eater using a device built by the Controllers, what we call the race who created the Sun-Eaters as their true name has been lost. Salu Digby, one of our members, is our best hope of infiltrating Mongul's fortress planetoid and gaining control of the device to divert the Sun-Eater's course before it reaches the Solar System. Unfortunately, she is trapped inside the Emerald Eye of Ekron, which is on Venegar."

"And why would you possibly think I would be able to get her out of this Eye thing? Me, a girl from the 21st Century?" asked Alex.

They had now crossed to the far side of the giant laboratory room. Another doorway melted open and Brainy directed them through. The next room was tiny by comparison, no more than ten by ten feet. Once Brainy, Lyle, Alex, Kara, and the Triplicate Girls were crowded inside, the door reformed and then the floor began to vibrate – not unlike an elevator back home. From the acceleration, it was obvious they were moving up to some higher level within the Clubhouse.

"I created this machine I call the Improbability Engine. It comes up with solutions when no solutions seem possible. When I asked it how to get Salu out of the Emerald Eye, it came up with your name and it said you had to physically touch the Eye while wearing a suit made of Kryptonite to cloud the Eye's perception of you . . . "

"Wait a second," interrupted Alex. "I have to be wearing a suit of Kryptonite?" Her eyes darted to Kara and she could see the Kryptonian girl turn pale and this was after just barely recovering from her exposure to the newly-red sun.

Brianiac 5 didn't miss this silent exchange between the two quasi-sisters. "If you try to touch it without the Kryptonite suit, the Eye will most likely take control of your mind if not outright kill you, as it is a powerful semi-sentient weapon."

Brainy paused for a moment before continuing, "From what we know, the Eye originally was a prototype for the Green Lantern power rings. It allows the owner to create force constructs using the power of their mind. It also gives the owner the power of flight. Like I said, it has many of the same attributes as a power ring. However whereas the power ring can only act at the command of the wearer, something went wrong with the Eye and it has a will of its own. Over time, it seduces the owner's mind to ultimately do its bidding instead."

Alex nearly interrupted him again at the Green Lantern reference, but then remembered seeing several news clips about a new Superhero of that name who had been spotted recently. So far, he had mostly been seen around Coast City and wasn't nearly as well-known as Superman. She didn't know anything about his abilities or their source, but perhaps it was this power ring thing Brainy was talking about.

Quickly, she turned her attention back to the green boy.

"The kryptonite suit is an absolute necessity if you are to get close to the Eye without it seducing you, too. I understand your concerns about Kara's safety. She can remain in a shielded compartment of the ship or she can simply remain here at the Clubhouse. Lyle and Triplicate Girl can pilot the ship and provide guidance for finding the Eye."

Alex looked at Kara and could read the girl's fear on her face. During one of his visits, Clark told them about going up against Lex Luthor when he had control of a chunk of kryptonite and how Clark had felt like he was dying. But then the expression on Kara's face hardened into one of stolid determination. "Alex, I'll go with you. Even if I can't be with you while you are wearing the suit, I'll be there for moral support. And you never know, maybe once we are there, I may still be able to do something to make a difference."

Alex nodded and turned back to Brainy. "I still don't understand why it needs to be me that does this."

Brainy just threw a helpless shrug, like he wasn't happy about the situation. "I can't really explain, as I don't understand it either. Simply touching the Eye shouldn't release Salu. But the Improbability Engine says if you do it, she will be released. There must be some kind of connection between the two of you, but it is hard to see what it could possibly be since you are from another millennia and Salu is not even human, but an Imskian from Imsk. But sometimes we just have to have faith."

The elevator had stopped moving about fifteen seconds earlier, but it wasn't until Brainy stopped speaking that a doorway formed. Through it, they could see a large space which filled the entire diameter of the clubhouse on this level. The ceiling had to be fifty feet high. It contained at least a dozen flying craft in a variety of sizes and styles from small single-person racers to several with the general length of a Gulfstream G5 business jet except with stubby wings and a fuselage at least three times larger in diameter. Brainy headed in the direction of one of these larger craft.

As they followed Brainy over to the spaceship, Kara reached over and clasped Alex's hand. "The decision whether to do this will have to be yours. But know, whatever you decide, I'll support you."

Alex nodded gratefully.

Then she frowned when Lyle interjected, "Just remember the lives of forty-three billion people may depend on what you do."

"Gee thanks, Lyle, way to guilt-trip me into a decision."

Lyle shrugged. "We may just be a bunch of kids, but sometimes we have to step up and do our part to make a difference."

They had reached the craft. A boarding ramp was already extended down to the floor in front of them.

"Well, Alex, what is it going to be? Are you ready to join the Big Leagues or are you going to chicken out?" asked Brainiac 5.

Alex swept her gaze from Brainy to Kara to Lyle to the Triplicate Girl. Then she realized she was simply stalling; there was only one real option.

"I'm in."

"Excellent," said Brainy with a grin. "Well, then, it is best if you guys were off. The sooner you retrieve Salu, the more time she will have to infiltrate Mongul's planetoid and gain control of the Sun-Eater."

"You're not coming with us?" asked Alex. Brainiac 5 was clearly the leader of the Legion or at least the most leader-like of the members she had met so far. She would feel a lot more comfortable if he was along.

"Sorry, my place is here at the Clubhouse. Several other groups are trying to delay Mongul and I need to coordinate their activities. And I'm working on several contingency plans. However I will maintain radio contact at least until you proceed down into the underground caverns."

Great, underground caverns, thought Alex. She wondered how much else they weren't telling her so she wouldn't back out. Brainiac 5 did seem to dole out the bare minimum amount of information.

But it already felt too late to back out. Therefore Alex just turned and led the way up the ramp.


	5. Chapter 5

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 5

One large compartment seemed to fill most of the interior space of the spaceship. Unlike the time bubble, this craft had a large, panoramic window at the front and just aft of that what had to be a main control station. Several more workstations were located along the sides of the cabin.

Lyle pushed by Alex, who had paused just barely inside the ship's entrance, and almost ran over to the main console and immediately began tapping in commands.

As soon as the rest of them were inside, the hatch through which they had entered slid closed and less than ten seconds later the craft lifted straight up from where it had been parked until it was clear of the surrounding vehicles. Straightaway, the craft began to move forward and a large portal in the side of the Clubhouse simultaneously began to iris open. Less than forty-five seconds after they had entered the ship, it was clear of the Clubhouse and climbing rapidly.

"We can't engage the hyper-dimensional drive until we are clear of the atmosphere," stated Lyle, as though he had read the question forming in Alex's head.

Alex had momentarily forgotten about the red sun, but the higher they climbed, the more intense it seemed to become. She glanced around and spotted Kara sitting in a chair at an unused workstation.

Kara smiled back at her. "I'm fine. I guess I'm getting used to not having my special abilities."

Alex knew Kara had agreed not to use her special gifts when she came to live with their family unless it was an honest-to-god emergency. Alex also knew that she used them a lot more than Eliza knew or at least acknowledged. She wondered what this must be like for Kara. Would it be like if she lost her hearing or her voice or even her sight? She shuddered at the thought.

"Okay, I'll be engaging the hyper-dimensional drive in ten seconds," said Lyle.

Alex turned back to the large front window. Around them was the black of space. Way, way below the last vestiges of the pink-tinted atmosphere could be seen. It had to be well under a minute since they had left the Clubhouse. This was one FAST spaceship.

"Engaging the H-D drive, now," said Lyle.

Instantly, the front window was filled with a blinding kaleidoscope of colors which flooded the interior of the craft.

"Wow! That is hard on the eyes," exclaimed Alex.

"Sorry," said Lyle. He touched a couple more spots on the control console and the large window turned an opaque gray. Imposed on its surface was a large clock currently displaying thirty-six minutes, forty-eight seconds and counting down.

Gesturing towards the clock, Alex said, "Since we have some time, how about telling me a little more about this Salu Digby I'm supposed to be rescuing?"

"In just a second," said Lyle before turning in Kara's direction. "Kara if you wouldn't mind moving to the aft end of the compartment, I'll erect a force-barrier so that we can start helping Alex into the Kryptonite suit while we talk."

Kara nodded and climbed out of the chair. Alex noted she didn't seem to be having any problems moving around. Hopefully, she was fully adjusted to the loss of her powers.

Once she had moved to the back, Lyle stabbed a few more commands into his console. A translucent yellow barrier appeared between them and Kara. She was left with about eight feet of space to move around.

Then Lyle entered another command and an eight-foot tall recessed panel in the left side wall slid open. Inside, Alex could see what had to be the Kryptonite suit.

It was nothing like what she was expecting. Of course, after the insane turn her life had taken in the last hour, why she should expect anything else was beyond her.

She had been expecting a simple suit with some pieces of kryptonite attached. Given the proclivity for skintight garments she had seen since arriving in the 31st Century, she figured it would be a catsuit with a myriad of thumbnail-sized chips of Kryptonite like the catsuit was covered in green rhinestones.

What she actually saw was a powered exoskeleton that looked more than anything like one of Tony Stark's suits from the Iron Man comics. An Iron Man movie was supposed to be coming out next summer and she had seen a few behind-the-scenes photos on some website. This suit looked exactly like that except this one was mostly Kryptonite Green rather than red and gold.

"Kara, are you feeling any ill effects?" called Lyle.

"No."

"Okay, I'm going to command the suit out of the storage compartment. The shield in front of you should prevent any seepage from the kryptonite, but if you start to feel anything, Kara, let me know and I can try to further tune the barrier."

"Okay."

Lyle was holding another small controller. It didn't look quite the same as the one he had used with the time bubble. Alex hadn't been paying attention to notice if he had pulled it from another pouch on his utility belt or from some compartment in the command console. He fiddled with it for a moment and then the exoskeleton lifted silently six inches into the air and glided out to the center of the compartment and then settled back down to the floor.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Kara. "That looks like the Iron Man suit."

So, it wasn't just her imagination, thought Alex. It looked even more like it when it had come floating out. All that was missing were the bright thruster-flames coming out of the hands and feet.

"What's an Iron Man suit?" asked Lyle.

"Oh, it's the powered suit used by a comic book character back home," explained Alex. And suddenly she remembered why it looked so familiar. It wasn't from the stills from the upcoming movie; it was from the large, framed Iron Man poster she had seen when she had been at Kenny's house when he had helped her with her calculus. Kara must have seen it there, too.

"Comic book?"

"Comic books are mostly illustrated adventure stories about fictional superheroes. In our time, there were two main publishers each with their own stable of superheroes. The biggest is Marvel and they have heroes like Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor, and a bunch more. The other is Radiant Angel, which leans more to the mystical, supernatural end of the spectrum with heroes like Radiant Angel, Pink Ghost, and The Electric Philosopher."

"Wow, I'll have to tell Brainy about this when we get back. He will find it fascinating," said Lyle.

"Actually, he might even find it useful," added one of the Luornu's.

"Huh?"

"You know how he is always trying to come up with new, unusual gadgets. There might be hundreds of things like that in these comic books to inspire him."

"Hmm, I hadn't thought of that," said Lyle. Then he happened to glance towards the forward window. The large countdown timer was now reading twenty-eight minutes, thirty-seven seconds. "Ah, we better focus on the mission at hand. Luornu, if you wouldn't mind helping me get Alex into the suit."

Two of the Luornu's walked over to join him as the front of the suit started opening up. The other Luornu walked over to where Alex was standing.

"I think you need to take off the jacket and the backpack. The suit will be a tight fit and it has internal heating and cooling so the jacket won't be necessary."

For a second, Alex figured they would want her to strip all the way down to her underwear, so she was happy if she just needed to remove the jacket.

"So, how does the suit fly?" asked Alex.

"Anti-gravity."

After unslinging the backpack and leaning it up against the nearest workstation, Alex took off her jacket and hung it over the back of the workstation's chair. When she straightened, she found Luornu staring at her chest. It wasn't until she glanced down that she remembered it said _Future Sex_ in big letters above a picture of Justin Timberlake.

"It's from an album cover for a collection of music by the singer Justin Timberlake," Alex explained.

"Comic books and shirts like that, I may have to visit your era once we get beyond this current crisis," said Luornu with a grin. Alex glanced over to the other copies of the girl and they were also grinning.

"We are ready for you over here," said Lyle.

Alex took a deep breath and walked over. The front of the suit was wide open. It was obvious she needed to back into it and then it would close up around her. She turned around, stepped back, and then worked her feet in, one at a time. Then she leaned back. It wasn't a perfect fit as hard protrusions dug into her back in several places and the space for the shoulders felt too high.

"Ah, guys, this isn't the most comfortable thing I've ever worn."

"Once I power it up, it will better mold itself to your body," stated Lyle. "I'm going to do it now, which will initiate the closing sequence. The whole process of the suit's configuring itself to your body will take seven and a half minutes. It will be easier to explain the controls once it is done. While it is working, we can brief you about Salu. Are you ready to begin, Alex?"

Alex took another deep calming breath. That seemed to be all she was doing lately. Her mother had dragged her to several yoga classes and now she wished she had paid more attention to the meditative aspects.

"Yeah."

Lyle twisted the small control in his hand again and the forward half of the suit began sliding closed. Alex was suddenly glad she wasn't claustrophobic like her friend Karen. Then she suddenly wished she hadn't thought of Karen. Karen had told her that her greatest fear was to be sealed away in a mummy's coffin like in some old horror movie. The closing suit did give that same feeling.

She found herself holding her breath. The suit finally reached the fully closed position and then things inside it began to move. The outside might look like an Iron Man suit – all hard metallic plates that slid around as it moved, but the inside felt like it was made of some liquid metal that began flowing around her body. It even felt like it was moving straight through her clothes to caress her skin. She had never felt anything remotely like it.

"Alex, can you hear me?" asked Lyle. His voice seemed to be right next to her ears. It had to be coming from speakers built into the suit.

"Yes, I can hear you."

"Can you focus on what I'm going to be telling you?" It seemed like an odd thing for the boy to say, but the way the suit flowed around her _was_ a major distraction. Perhaps he had worn this suit or one like it before and understood what she was experiencing.

"I, ah, I think so."

"Okay. Like Brainy mentioned before, Salu is an Imskian from Imsk. Imsk is a planet of extremes. It can have years of bountiful crops and then decades, even centuries of extreme famine. The creatures of the planet developed the ability to reduce their size to where something like a single banana could feed a million of them for a year, meaning the Imskians can control their size. Originally they could reduce themselves until they were less than a ten-thousandth of an inch tall. Eventually, with training, the best of them could take it even further until they were down to atomic-size.

"And Salu is one of the best. She can reduce her size until she can easily enter not just a human body, but a human cell. And she can also enter any piece of electronic equipment. She can even directly interact with nano-machines that consist of only a few thousand atoms."

That ability struck Alex as absolutely crazy. It made Superman with his impossible strength, ability to fly, his heat and x-ray vision, his freeze breath and everything else sound almost mundane. More than once she and Kara had tried to figure out the physics behind those abilities, but had been largely unsuccessful. But being able to shrink yourself down to the size of atoms was a whole other level of weird.

"Let me guess," replied Alex, even while she tried to wrap her head around the concept. "That's how she got into this Emerald Eye thing."

"The Emerald Eye of Ekron is much larger than a human eye; it is almost two feet in diameter and apparently there is a proportionately large head with another eye out there somewhere. But, yes, she must have greatly shrunken herself to get into it."

"So, somehow, when I touch the Eye, she will be able to jump from it to my body. And then, when I'm back here, she can exit my body and then resume her full-sized, normal self."

"I think so," replied Lyle.

"And she's going to reduce herself again to enter Mongul's citadel and then take control of the device controlling the Sun-Eater."

"Yes."

"Couldn't you just use your invisibility to do the same thing?"

Lyle shook his head. "Unfortunately not, for a couple of reasons. First, Mongul has defenses that will stop a full-sized person from gaining entry regardless of whether they are invisible or not. Second, to gain control of the Sun-Eater will require someone who is simply the best at understanding and manipulating electronic and nano devices. And that's Salu. Now if expertise in chemistry was the answer, then I would be your man."

Just then, a new, unfamiliar female voice began to speak in Alex's ear. "I am the Mark 43 combat suit, but you may call me Buffy. How may I assist you?"

Buffy, the suit's name was Buffy? Alex thought if it was going to have a name, it should be something like Thor and have a deep commanding man's voice.

"Ah, guys," said Alex. "The suit just talked to me and said its name is Buffy."

Lyle nodded. "That means the initialization phase is complete. How does it feel, Alex? Is it more comfortable now?"

Alex had been so focused on the conversation about Salu, she had almost forgotten about how the suit's internal structure had been reconfiguring. Now, when she thought about it, she realized it was very comfortable. The earlier eerie liquid metal had transitioned to where it felt like she was almost floating in a pool of water. Oh, when she tried moving it was apparent the liquid layer was less than a half inch thick, but she felt unexpectedly safe and cocooned.

The other thing that happened when she wiggled around was that the suit moved around with her. She raised her right hand and the suit moved smoothly and it didn't seem to take any more effort than moving her arm alone, not at all like she was wearing the equivalent of a suit of armor. She lifted each leg, one at a time and then tried jumping in place several times. Again, the effort seemed to be no higher than if she was jumping while wearing her gym clothes.

"Everything seems to be working," said Alex for the others' benefit.

"Okay," said Lyle with a small smile. "Now you need to try flying. Well, while you're still in the spaceship, you better just try hovering. The suit has a neural interface. So you should just need to think about what you want to do and the suit should do the rest, but it may need a few attempts to calibrate. If you have any questions or problems, try asking the suit for assistance."

Alex had seen the suit hover its way out of the storage compartment, but it hadn't really sunk in that it would allow her to fly just like Clark and Kara. Perhaps using this suit might actually be fun.

She concentrated on rising six inches into the air. Nothing happened. She tried concentrating even harder. Still nothing happened.

"Ah, Buffy, I'm trying to hover above the floor, but nothing is happening. What am I doing wrong?"

"It should be working," replied the suit. It paused for a long ten seconds before continuing. "I've just asked the ship's AI as well as the Clubhouse AI about you. I am designed to interface with someone from the 31st Century. Apparently, being from the 21st Century, your neural pathways are sufficiently different to be causing the issue."

"You mean I can't interface with you?" asked Alex. She was one part relieved that now she might not have to do the mission to the Eye and one part frustrated.

"No, it just means we will need to do a little extra calibration beyond the normal," replied Buffy. "I am going to show you a series of colors on the internal display. I want you to say their names out loud."

Everything in Alex's field of view abruptly turned green. "Green."

Then it changed to red. "Red."

"Orange . . . white . . . blue . . . black . . . gray . . . pink."

"Okay, now I'm going to show you a series of objects. Please say their names out loud."

"Ball . . . chair . . . hat . . . lamp . . . dog . . . spaceship . . . book."

"Excellent," replied Buffy. "Give me five seconds to process the data. . . . . And ready. Please try thinking of an action again."

Alex thought again about lifting six inches into the air. Immediately, it happened. Then she thought about moving sideways to the left by three feet. Again it was as easy as thinking about it.

"Flight calibration completed. Good job, Alex," said the suit.

"Ah, thanks?" It still seemed a little strange to be talking to the suit.

Lyle had moved back over to the master control panel. He nodded and then looked in Alex's direction. "Very good. Now we just need to do a quick run-through of the suit's weapon systems and you will be ready to go."

"Weapon systems?" echoed Alex. "Ah, why do I need weapon systems?"

"Venegar is a class K7 planet. That means it once had a civilization, but that civilization is no longer present, for whatever reason. However, just because its people are gone, doesn't mean it is completely lifeless. The galactic database lists four different alpha predators still inhabiting the world along with a complete ecosystem of lower life forms. The suit has excellent sensors and should be able to avoid most hostile life, but in case it can't, it is best that you are prepared."

Alex had simply known there had been some important details Brainiac 5 had left out, probably intentionally. But she couldn't gracefully back out now. She just hoped she would live through this day. Where was Superman when she needed him?

They spent the remaining six minutes until the spaceship would drop out of hyper-dimensional travel discussing the offensive and defensive capabilities of the suit. Unfortunately, discussing them was all they could do while the suit was within the confines of the ship without risking damaging something.

Just as the ship was about to drop back into normal space, a final question popped into Alex's head.

"Ah, you never did mention Salu's superhero moniker."

"Most of us called her Vi similar to how we refer to Brainiac 5 as Brainy. Her full title is _Shrinking Violet_."


	6. Chapter 6

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 6

Alex felt the slightest jolt through the suit as the spaceship touched down. They were in a small sheltered valley about ten miles from the entrance to the cavern system where the Emerald Eye of Ekron was located. Lyle said he didn't want to bring the ship any closer to prevent the Eye from detecting their presence prematurely.

"Okay, Alex. Are you ready?" asked Lyle from the master control console.

"I think so."

"Then I'm going to open the door. As soon as you exit, I'm going to close it again. The air on Venegar is breathe-able, so that's not a problem. But I don't want any wildlife trying to enter while we are here."

Lyle had loaded data on the wildlife of Venegar into the suit and she had seen images of the biggest predators. They were all damn scary. She wasn't sure which was the most dangerous, but the Dralgo was definitely the scariest looking. It looked a lot like a housefly - if they had orange bodies and pink transparent wings - and if houseflies were ten feet long and capable of capturing and carrying a full-sized human - and if houseflies wrapped their prey in sticky cocoons to eat at their leisure back in their nests.

"Wait a second, Alex," called Kara from where she still stood in the protected area at the back of the compartment.

Alex turned and looked at her.

"Lyle," continued Kara. "It's hard to be certain through this translucent barrier, but it looks like this world's sun is yellow."

"Yes, it is. We are a long way from where Mongul is causing stars to turn red."

"Then I think as soon as Alex leaves the ship, you should drop this barrier. And as soon as she is clear, I need to go outside and stand directly in the sunlight. Even though I probably can't get within 50 feet of her while she's wearing that suit, I am still the closest thing she has to back up."

Alex smiled and nodded gratefully, not that Kara could see her face through the faceplate of the Kryptonite suit.

"Okay," agreed Lyle. "But you need to stay here close to the ship unless you are really needed. We are this far from the caverns so the Eye won't detect us. The suit should conceal Alex, but the Eye still might notice you and raise its guard. Or worse, it could try to influence your mind, or even mine or Triplicate Girl's."

"I promise," replied Kara solemnly.

"Thanks, Kara," said Alex before she turned and moved towards the door.

It swung open as Alex approached. When she stepped outside, she almost felt like she was being blinded. Venegar's sun seemed a lot brighter than the Earth's sun.

Giving her eyes a moment to adjust, she swept her gaze around. The ship was sitting in a small clearing in the middle of what looked like a jungle. She had no firsthand experience with jungles, but she had seen plenty of them in movies. Everything looked similar except the dominant color of the vegetation here tended more towards a deep purple than green. She was just happy the suit would allow her to fly over the jungle rather than having to hack through miles of it with a machete.

Enough dawdling, she thought to herself. The sooner she started, the sooner this would all be over and they could head home to the 21st Century. Suddenly, Thanksgiving Dinner with a bunch of people who were mostly strangers seemed a lot more appealing than dealing with giant eyes, monstrous creatures, and threats to the whole freaking planet.

"Buffy, please bring the defensive shields on-line," said Alex even as she mentally commanded the suit to lift into the air.

Without even asking, visual cues appeared within Alex's field of view pointing the way. She headed in the indicated direction at just a little above treetop height. She didn't see any point in flying any higher which probably would just make her a more noticeable target for the various airborne predators of this world.

She did, however, indulge in a little more maneuvering than was absolutely necessary. She wove from side to side and even did a barrel-roll, or at least that's what she thought it was called, as she had never been that interested in flying other than the flying Kara and Clark did.

The suit followed her every thought. In only a couple of minutes, it no longer seemed like she even had to actively think about flying, it just seemed to happen. She wondered if this was what flying was like for her Kryptonian friends. It seemed like it could easily become addictive.

"The entrance to the cavern is three hundred feet ahead," whispered the voice of Buffy quietly into Alex's ear. The pronouncement hadn't been strictly necessary, but Alex was glad the suit had done it. Flying was simply so much fun, she needed the reminder it was time to focus on the mission. And perhaps that was why Buffy had done it. If it could read her thoughts to make flying effortless, it could just as easily tell she was distracted.

"Right. Thanks, Buffy," replied Alex. She definitely was getting more comfortable conversing with the suit.

She could now see the opening in the hillside ahead through a break in the trees. It was flanked by a pair of giant, mostly overgrown, eighty foot tall stone statues. They definitely weren't statutes of humans, unless humans here had four arms instead of two. It was a strong reminder she was no longer on Earth, if the purple vegetation hadn't been enough of a clue.

Alex slowed to a hover and stared at the foreboding entrance. "Ah, Buffy, are there any active defenses I need to be worrying about?"

"None within detectable range, but it may change as we travel deeper into the caverns. The composition of these rocks limits the range of both my sensors and those of the ship. Plus, Lyle didn't want to use an extremely high energy sensor-pulse which might have put the Eye on guard."

She wished she knew more about what was hidden in these caverns, but there was nothing for it but to proceed. At least the opening was about forty feet wide by fifteen feet tall and she could continue to fly for now.

After the blinding brightness outside, the cavern felt pitch black as she entered. She paused about twenty feet in from the opening to let her eyes adjust. In less time than she had expected, she started to make out details of her surroundings. At first, she assumed Buffy had activated some light enhancing feature. But then Alex saw what looked like bioluminescent glows coming from several locations. So perhaps what she was seeing was a combination of Buffy's action and the cavern's natural internal lighting.

However, calling this chamber a cavern seemed like a misnomer. It had a paved stone floor and numerous carved columns. It wasn't clear if the columns were strictly decorative or if they were actually supporting the roof, but, either way, at least this area wasn't just a natural formation as implied by the word _cavern_.

In several locations the roof had partially collapsed leaving piles of loose stone and broken columns. She had a strong sense the space had long been used for some arcane purpose, but also that it had been abandoned for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Sweeping her gaze around, she spotted a dimly lit passage in the back left corner of the chamber. She didn't see any other exits except the one to the outside through which she had entered.

"Ah, Buffy, what happened to the directions you had been providing me?" Alex asked, when she realized that feature of the helmet's display had disappeared.

"Sorry. We know the Eye is located somewhere in this underground system, but we don't know exactly where. The last message from Salu was from right before she entered this chamber. Therefore we don't know where she went from here. But since she was never in contact again, she must be in here somewhere."

"Then how do you know she is trapped inside the Eye? I mean, what if something happened to her before she reached the Eye? And how long ago did she come here anyway?"

If the suit could shrug by just using its voice, that's what it did now. "Brainy says there is an 83% probability she is trapped here inside of the Eye. She went missing eleven days ago, shortly before this whole situation with Mongul arose. And if Mongul wasn't rampaging towards Earth requiring their full attention, the Legion would have sent someone to look for her sooner."

For a suit that appeared to be designed for the sole purpose of attacking Kryptonians, it certainly seemed to be up-to-date with the goings on of the Legion.

"Buffy, how is it you know all of this?" asked Alex. She knew the suit wasn't maintaining an active link back to Lyle and the ship. Lyle had made it clear they were to remain _radio silent_ unless it was an actual emergency, as any signal might cause the Eye to become aware of them prematurely. And the stricture applied during their withdrawal as well. In the best case scenario, they would be long gone from this planet before the Eye even realized they had been there.

"Brainiac 5 gave me a data dump before we left Earth."

Alex abruptly interrupted their conversation. "What the hell was that?"

She had been heading down the corridor, which was also lined with ornate columns at ten foot intervals. She had covered maybe a quarter mile and had passed several side corridors, but her gut told her to keep heading down the main passageway. Out of the corner of her eye, she was certain she had seen something dart across the passageway maybe a hundred feet ahead. But it had been too dark to tell exactly what it had been.

"I believe it is a variety of tri-hydra," replied Buffy.

Tri-hydras had been one of the predators Lyle had mentioned during the briefing. They were four-legged, green-scaled creatures the size of a Saint Bernard only with three serpentine heads that could inflict poisonous bites. Like the hydra of Greek mythology, if a head was lost, it would regrow unless the stump was promptly cauterized.

"Can their bite penetrate the suit?"

"I don't believe so," answered Buffy. "They should only be a danger in a large pack."

"Will your lightning weapon be effective against them?"

"It should be enough to stun one. However, I would recommend avoiding its use, if at all possible. The associated electro-magnetic field when it is discharged may be noticed by the Eye at this distance."

"Well, please get it ready, just in case," said Alex firmly.

"I'm charging the weapon now."

Alex had slowed to a hover while talking to the suit. Now she started moving forward again, but at a much slower pace. This passage was barely twelve feet high. It was plenty of room for her to continue to fly comfortably, but it meant she was close enough to the floor that a creature the size of a large dog could easily jump high enough to snag an arm or leg of the suit. If a whole pack of these tri-hydra creatures suddenly sprung out of the dark, they might be able to pull her down.

"Can you tell how much further this passageway extends?" asked Alex. Without thinking about it, she had dropped her voice to a whisper.

"In approximately one hundred eighty feet, it widens out into a larger chamber. I can't determine the dimensions of that chamber from this range."

Alex continued to glide forward, her eyes trying to scan in all directions at once. It was nerve-wracking and she could feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Being in the suit was no longer in the _fun_ category – and for all she knew they might have miles to go.

She didn't see any further signs of tri-hydras or other wildlife. After a long sixty seconds, she reached the next chamber. It was much better lit than the first chamber or the corridor, which was a good thing as it was also much, much larger. The passageway let out onto a walkway forty feet above the floor. The walkway appeared to circle all the way around the chamber, however it was hard to tell for certain as the far side had to be a half mile away. Three more tiered walkways encircled the chamber at roughly ten foot intervals between this level and the floor. The entire chamber was bathed in a gold light coming from recesses in the high ceiling. It was impossible to tell whether these were artificial lights or merely recessed windows letting in natural sunlight.

The disheartening aspect was that Alex could see at least a dozen passages exiting this chamber on each level and that was only on the near end. The far end of the space probably held that many more. In total, a hundred passages could be headed away from here and she had no idea which one was the correct path to the Eye.

"Ah, Buffy, any suggestions on where to head next?"

"Perhaps we should start with the structure at the center of the chamber."

Alex looked in the suggested direction and realized there was a small object there. From a quarter mile away she had overlooked it in her first glance around. Since it was the only thing down at floor level in the vast space, it probably was the best place to start. And perhaps it even held the Eye and they were almost done. They had come at least a half mile from the outer entrance and no one in the Legion, except Salu, appeared to have much knowledge about this underground complex.

Alex glided over the railing along the edge of the walkway. For a second her stomach lurched at the abrupt forty foot drop. Out in the jungle she had stayed within ten feet of the treetops and then the constricted space in the entry chamber and the long passage had also kept her close to the apparent ground. Now, it felt like she was higher from the ground than she had ever flown. Quickly, she swooped down until she was crossing the wide floor at an altitude of little more than five feet. Obviously, there were aspects of flying she still needed to master.

She cranked up the pace. In less than ten seconds she had covered the quarter-mile to the structure in the center of the sprawling chamber.

Up close it was much larger than she had originally suspected. It was a squat, square building about forty feet on a side and maybe ten feet tall surrounded by columns that were a match for those in the entry room and the corridor. It reminded her vaguely of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which she and her parents had visited while on vacation during the summer between fifth and sixth grade. However it was definitely a lot smaller and lower than the Lincoln Memorial. She was forced to drop to the floor and walk.

"Are you picking up anything, Buffy?"

"No. I'm not sensing any types of electromagnetic emissions or any signs of animal life."

Alex hoped that was a good thing.

She strode passed the outer perimeter ring of columns. About eight feet beyond the columns was a wall, apparently constructed of the same pale yellow stone blocks as the floor. An opening was visible about ten feet to her right, so she moved in that direction.

Inside the opening she could see a five foot wide walkway around the perimeter of the room with the remaining thirty by thirty foot central space open to a lower level about twenty feet below the floor level of the main surrounding chamber. And just as with the large opening in the floor, the ceiling was open to the surrounding chamber. If she hadn't approached at almost ground level, she would have seen this and could have dropped straight down from above.

Stepping up to the edge of the walkway, Alex could now see the walkway extended out over the lower level and that the lower level was much larger than the entrance level. Somehow she instantly knew this was where she would find the Eye rather than down one of the nearly countless tunnels leading out of the large chamber. After a second glance, she also realized there weren't any stairs leading down to the lower level – it was a good thing she could fly!

Alex lifted up until she hovered a foot above the walkway and then glided forward. When she had been flying earlier she had mostly been using a prone position like Clark and Kara used when they were flying. But now she remained upright as she slowly dropped until she was standing on the lower level.

She swept her gaze around. It was much darker down here than it had been on the level above. Most of the light was coming down through the hole through which she had just descended and it petered out before reaching more than fifty feet beyond the extent of the opening. This lower chamber appeared to extend at least that far in all directions. And, unfortunately, this space wasn't empty like the large level above.

In every direction, Alex could see what she could only describe as an endless field of catafalques. She only knew the word because it had tripped her up in the citywide 7th Grade spelling bee championship. A catafalque was an ornately decorated wooden framework that supported a coffin. These weren't supporting coffins, but actual bodies. Some of the remains were still in good condition and she could easily make out how they each had four arms – just like the two giant statues outside the original entrance. It took only a couple of seconds for it to sink in that she was in a giant underground mausoleum. The creepiness factor of this mission abruptly jumped by a factor of a million!

"Buffy, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Alex, she could hear the quaver in her own voice.

"You mean all the bodies?" replied Buffy. There was no revulsion or horror in her tone like Alex felt.

"Of course, I mean the bodies. This must be the alien equivalent of a cemetery," babbled Alex. Why couldn't these people bury their dead or cremate them like back home? Why would they leave the rotting, decaying corpses on display like this?

"That seems likely," agreed the suit, still with an annoyingly neutral tone to its speech. Perhaps its voice had always been this bland, but she just hadn't noticed.

The more Alex thought about her surroundings, the queasier she began to feel.

"What happens if I barf while in the suit?"

"Barf?"

"Hurl, vomit, throw up." Alex tried to remember when last she had eaten. They had had a late dinner in National City just before reaching the airport. She hadn't eaten anything on the airplane. And since then, she had only had a couple of granola bars from the gift shop at the Institute of Technology back in Metropolis. That seemed like a lifetime ago, but the trip through time and then the trip halfway across the galaxy had only consumed ninety minutes. Perhaps she should be glad Lyle had grabbed them before Clark took them to lunch.

"Oh, I understand, now," replied Buffy. "Take several slow deep breaths."

Alex did as the suit advised. And she did suddenly feel a lot better. "What did you do?"

"I made a slight change to the suit's air mix; mostly I just bumped the percentage of oxygen up a few points."

"Thanks," said Alex, meaning it. Her stomach felt a lot less queasy. She glanced around. All the bodies were still there, but they didn't seem to bother her as much. She tried to turn her attention back to the mission. "Why would the Eye be here?"

"I have no idea," replied Buffy.

"Do you have any suggestion of where it might be located?" asked Alex. In her mind she suddenly imagined spending hours wandering through this place, an endless cavalcade of corpses slowly driving her mad.

"The light is four percent brighter to your left. I suggest trying that direction."

Alex swept her gaze around again. The light might be slightly brighter to her left, but it also could just be her imagination. However with no better idea, she began slowly walking in the direction Buffy had suggested.

In less than thirty seconds, she had walked passed at least fifteen concentric rings of bodies or roughly one hundred feet – far enough that the light from the opening where she had descended to this level was getting very dim. Oh, she had no trouble still seeing the opening when she looked back, but it wasn't casting much useful light at this distance. If there was another abrupt drop off, she might not see it in time to avoid stepping off the edge. But a drop off seemed unlikely given the nature of this space.

She was about to ask Buffy if she could do anything to further amplify the ambient light when she saw it, a cone of light in the direction she had been heading. It was difficult to judge distances in the dim light, but it at least gave her something to home in on.

It took Alex five more minutes of steady walking, passing at least another hundred rings of bodies, to begin to approach the highlighted object. If this level extended equally far in all directions, then it must be as large as the chamber above. She tried to estimate the number of dead aliens it housed – it had to be in the millions. And Alex didn't know if the object ahead was even at the end of the chamber in this direction, as she couldn't see any wall immediately beyond it.

But now she was close enough to make out the object ahead. It rested on a four foot tall by seven foot long by three foot wide catafalque just like all the bodies. And it could only be the Emerald Eye of Ekron. Alex was still forty feet away, but the object was bathed in some overhead light. From this distance it looked like an oversized human eyeball with a dangling strip of optic nerve. It looked hideously grotesque, but after walking by hundreds of decaying aliens, the last few of which were little more than crumbled skeletons, Alex seemed to have become inured to things.

As Alex stepped closer, the Eye became more clearly defined. The iris was a brilliant emerald green, but the remainder of the eyeball was white with a faintly jelly-like texture just like a human eye.

The eye was roughly two feet in diameter just like Brainy had said. This had to be the Emerald Eye of Ekron!


	7. Chapter 7

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 7

The Emerald Eye of Ekron wasn't pointed exactly in her direction, but it was close enough. If it behaved like a normal eye, she would definitely be in its field of view when she stepped into the cone of light. Not wanting anything to go wrong when she was this close to her goal, Alex circled around until she could approach it mostly from the rear before moving any closer. And, as she moved, she tried to keep at least one of the catafalque holding the dead aliens between her and the Eye at all times.

Once she was in position, she paused to stare at the Eye. It hadn't moved or given any sign it was aware of her presence. But then she had no idea how a disembodied eye would even move. She hoped she would never find out.

"Buffy, how do I touch it?" Alex breathed at barely a whisper, as she realized they had never discussed this detail.

"When you are close to the Eye, just reach out with your right index finger. I'll retract the suit from that finger at the last second."

"Okay."

Alex stepped clear of the pile of alien bones she had been crouched behind and then had the suit lift until it was hovering three inches above the floor and then commanded it to glide forward. It didn't seem like an eye should be able to _hear_ , but she didn't want to take any chances. Who knew whether a foot scraped on the floor might be enough to alert it.

She halted the suit when it was eighteen inches from the Eye. Even at this range, the Eye still looked like a normal eye, albeit a hugely oversized one. For a second, she wondered if she could force herself to touch it just due to the _ick_ factor.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her right arm, closed her hand into a fist, and then extended her index finger. Slowly, she reached forward, hoping to touch the Eye as lightly as possible. She had no idea how this would release Salu from the Eye or how long she would have to maintain contact. Hopefully, it would be obvious when the deed was done.

One inch before her finger reached the Eye, the armor around the finger slid back exposing the tip and most of the fingernail, but leaving the first knuckle still covered. As lightly as possible, Alex touched the Eye. It felt like it had a consistency a little stiffer than jello.

When nothing seemed to happen after a handful of seconds, Alex whispered, "What now?"

"Let's give it ten more seconds," replied Buffy. "If this approach is going to work, it shouldn't take that long. If it hasn't worked by then, we might as well retreat back to the ship to regroup. Maybe Brainy will have some other suggestion."

Alex had no desire to spend all day standing here with her finger pressed against an alien eye. She was more than happy to follow the suit's suggestion.

She mentally counted down the seconds; she still felt no reaction from the Eye. Nor did she feel like someone had swept into her body. Of course, if Salu was currently small enough to fit within a single cell, then she wouldn't feel anything.

When she was certain the ten seconds had expired, she carefully pulled her finger back. The digit had moved less than an inch when Buffy once again enclosed the exposed fingertip.

The suit was still hovering a few inches above the floor. Alex commanded it to glide backwards about two feet and then slowly spun in midair until she was facing away from the Eye.

And that was when she saw at least twenty red spots between her and the distant point where she had entered this mausoleum chamber. She instinctively knew they were the feral gleam from the eyes of a large pack of predatory creatures. Shit! She had come all this way and it was looking like the whole trip was going to be a failure. And now this!

"What now?" Alex whispered even though she wanted to scream not whisper. She could feel the panic welling.

"I think those are Montressors," answered Buffy, calmly. "My lightning weapon should be able to stun some of them or potentially scare them away, but if I use it this close to the Eye, it will surely be alerted. We are going to have to get around them."

Montressors were one of the alpha predators that Lyle had specifically mentioned while they were still on their way to the planet. The creatures had two legs and four arms like the sentient race that had once inhabited this world. However they stood fourteen feet tall. They also had two long tentacles where an elephant would have tusks. And they had a single large eye in the middle of their forehead like a cyclops. Therefore the twenty red orbs she could see meant there were twenty of the creatures not just ten like there would be back home.

The ceiling of this chamber was high enough that she could fly, but not so high that fourteen foot tall creatures couldn't reach it. So she couldn't simply fly over them. She would have to go around them and hope there weren't more of them waiting at the opening in the ceiling where she had entered.

Alex started slowly gliding to her left, which took her away from both the Eye and the creatures. She didn't want to make any sudden moves that might attract their attention on the off-chance they were here for some other reason than being in pursuit of her.

No such luck though. She had glided at least twenty feet away from the Eye, but the creatures were all still staring fixedly in her direction.

"Buffy, can you enhance my vision further? I would like to try to out run them, but when it's this dark, I'm likely to hit one of the catafalque."

"It would be the simplest, if you would let me take control for the moment," suggested Buffy.

Alex hated the idea of giving up control even if the suit had her best interests in mind. Still . . .

"Okay. Do it," directed Alex.

And almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it. The suit lifted a little higher into the air and then accelerated hard while dodging from side to side to avoid the countless obstacles of catafalque and ceiling support columns. Alex had never been that prone to motion sickness and she was certain she could move this fast while in control of the suit without a problem. But when she was nothing but a helpless passenger with no warning of which way the suit was going to dodge next, it was quickly overwhelming her sense of equilibrium. She tried closing her eyes, but it didn't seem to help.

"Buffy, you need to slow down. You are making me sick!"

The suit slowed for a moment, but then there was a large crash nearby and they were hit with a heavy rain of debris. The suit accelerated again and jinked even faster.

"Sorry. The Montressors are trying to stop us by hurling catafalque in our direction. If we take a direct hit, I may be crippled long enough for them to catch us."

Buffy had barely finished speaking when something slammed into the side of the suit. They careened sideways, straight through a moldering, long desiccated corpse, and crashed to the ground. They tumbled until finally coming to a stop against another catafalque. A rain of bones poured down on top of them.

"Anti-grav is offline and it will take thirty seconds to restore," stated Buffy. "Alex, you need to run."

Alex shook her head and struggled to her feet. Her vision swam for a moment and she wasn't sure if it was due to the crash or the nausea of the previous erratic flight. She finally spotted the distant light that had to be the opening where she had entered this chamber. It looked a long, long way away. She put one foot in front of the other. The first steps were hesitant, but as she moved it seemed to become easier. She was quickly up to at least a jog, if not quite a sprint.

Then another catafalque crashed down not six feet to her left. That definitely helped with her motivation. She pushed up her speed, but she needed to constantly zig-zag to avoid the seeming haphazard placement of the intervening catafalque.

Another catafalque came flying in. It also missed, but it raised another shower of bones and rotted corpse bits that sent her sideways into a column. She glanced over her shoulder and the monsters seemed to be gaining on her even as they lofted more projectiles in her direction.

"Buffy, is your lightning weapon working?" demanded Alex as she got moving again.

"Yes, but as I said before, it may draw the Eye's attention."

"And you don't think all the noise these creatures are making won't do that? I mean it's enough to wake the dead." She instantly regretted that choice of words. She could just imagine all the corpses in this chamber suddenly rising up to attack her like some scene from the _Lord of the Rings_ movies.

"Okay. Just point your right hand towards one of the creatures and think _fire_ , I'll do the rest," answered Buffy.

Alex dove behind the nearest catafalque. She turned and pointed towards the nearest creature and thought _fire_.

In the near dark of the chamber, the jagged blue-white bolt was almost blinding. It raced across the forty foot distance and struck the creature in the center of its chest. The Montressor was knocked back ten feet and slammed into the creature directly behind it. They both tumbled to the ground.

Alex quickly fired two more bolts targeting creatures to the left and right of the first one. These, too, were thrown to the ground. That was enough to cause the rest of the creatures to hesitate.

She grinned for a moment; however it quickly faded when she spotted a green glow emanating from what had to be the spot where the Eye had been resting. It steadily got brighter and brighter until the whole cavernous chamber was as bright as mid-day back home.

Alex took two stumbling steps backward and then turned and ran. If the initial battle with the Montressors hadn't awakened the Eye then the lightning bolts most definitely had.

"Buffy, tell me the anti-grav is back online!" shouted Alex.

"Online . . . now," stated the suit in its now familiar and utterly irritating calm tone.

Alex leaped into the air as though she had been flying as long as Kara or even Clark. She raced towards the exit flying just below the ceiling so she was well above the height of the catafalque and only had to worry about the support columns.

The green glow behind her got even more intense as she pushed forward as fast as she could until the columns raced by in almost a blur. In mere seconds, the central opening in the ceiling was right in front of her. She raced through it and straight up through the small structure that surrounded it. She was moving so fast, she nearly hit the ceiling of the chamber above. At the last moment, she managed to angle her trajectory and avoided an impact by bare inches.

She was back in the large chamber with the four tiers of walkways around its perimeter, the room with the hundreds of potential exits.

"Buffy, where is the passage we followed to get here?"

"It's in the opposite direction, Alex," stated Buffy.

As soon as Alex began to turn, the direction indicator she had used while crossing the jungle reappeared on her display. She raced in the indicated direction, which required her to pass close to the small structure in the center of the chamber. As she got even with it, what looked like giant ten-foot green flies came boiling up out of its depths.

"Oh my god, Buffy, it's the Dralgo!" shouted Alex. Of all the creatures, Lyle had shown her that were potential threats on this planet, this was the one that had scared her the most.

"Actually," stated Buffy calmly. "I don't believe they are Dralgo. They appear to be force-construct versions of the creatures created by the Eye. Of course, they are just as deadly as the real thing."

"Thanks, Buffy, that helped a lot," said Alex unable to keep the panic out of her voice. She turned her attention forward and focused on reaching the passage out of this underground nightmare. She could only hope the suit was faster than these creatures whether they were real or just a creation of the Eye.

The far wall of the chamber was rapidly approaching. Buffy's directional display better be absolutely precise, as she intended to take the passage beyond without slowing. To the best of her recollection, it was perfectly straight. She had to hope they wouldn't careen into a wall or column.

She didn't dare look back. "Buffy, are the Dralgo gaining on us?"

"The nearest one is one hundred twenty feet behind and closing. If neither of you slow, it will catch you in twenty seconds."

If she didn't slow, twenty seconds at this speed should see her clear of the passage and the last chamber before she would be outside. Then she would have some room to maneuver. Hopefully, that would help, but if not . . .

"Buffy, open a channel to the ship."

"But . . ."

Alex cut the suit off. "The Eye is awake and aware of us. We need to warn the others."

It was only a couple of seconds later that Alex heard Lyle's voice.

"Alex, you weren't supposed to . . ."

"Lyle. The Eye is aware of me and its constructs are on my tail. You need to withdraw beyond its range. I'll catch up once I'm clear."

The mission appeared to be a bust. And now she had monstrous flying creatures hot on her tail. This day was really beginning to suck. She wished she had never heard of the Legion of Superheroes or time travel or hyper-dimensional drives.


	8. Chapter 8

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 8

The external door of the ship closed as soon as Alex was outside. Immediately, Lyle dropped the barrier which had been protecting Kara at the back of the cabin.

"Kara," he said while holding a small device in her direction. "This is one of our standard communicators. Put it in your ear and we will be able to converse while you're outside."

Kara accepted it with a nod of thanks. After inserting it into her right ear, she asked, "Can you bring up a map to orient me, so I know where this cavern is relative to here? Just in case."

Lyle stared at her for several seconds, as though debating whether giving her that information was a good idea. Finally, he nodded and turned back to the control station.

In only seconds, a large eight foot diameter hologram filled the space between where Kara was standing and the door. It gave a detailed three-dimensional view of the terrain with the ship and the cave entrance clearly highlighted. Kara walked around it and took it in from all angles until it felt like she had every intervening hill and valley memorized.

"Thanks, Lyle," Kara said as she stepped over to the door. Silently, the door melted away.

As soon as the door was open, Kara could feel the invigorating rays of the sun. Instantly, she could feel her special gifts begin to return. It was a six foot drop to the ground and she managed to levitate down without crashing, but it left her feeling noticeably weaker. She definitely would need some time in the direct sun to be fully restored.

"How long has Alex been gone?" Kara asked to the empty air. The question was as much a test of the communicator as a serious query. It definitely hadn't been long enough for Alex to have completed her mission and be on the way back.

"It has been four minutes, twenty seconds," replied Lyle.

Alex swept her gaze around. The surrounding purple jungle reminded her of one of the places they had visited on Sedenach when her family had been there on vacation when she had been nine. Well, except that Sedenach had a red sun just like Krypton and therefore she hadn't had any special powers there either. It made her wonder why she had never heard about Kryptonians having special abilities under a yellow sun until she had actually arrived on Earth. The Milky Way galaxy did seem to have a much higher percentage of yellow suns than her native galaxy. It made her wonder about the other twenty-six known and explored galaxies.

As her superhuman vision returned, she used it to study the surrounding jungle in more detail. She saw many small creatures hidden within the vegetation. Some of them were analogs of reptiles and insects, but some didn't seem to have any direct corresponding type among either Earth or Kryptonian life. While she wasn't yet certain what she wanted to do with her life, although there seemed to be a high probability of following in her cousin's footsteps, she was certain she had no desire to end up a botanist. Studying the local wild life quickly lost its charm.

Of course, a lot of that may have had to do about her concern for Alex. She knew her adoptive sister was brave, but she also knew she had never done anything like what she was attempting now. She was very worried that something bad was going to happen to Alex and she wouldn't be able to do anything to help.

"How long has it been now?" she asked, when she couldn't hold off any longer. She hated to be like the little kid repeatedly demanding _'Are we there yet?'_ , but she couldn't stop herself.

"It has been twelve minutes, thirty-eight seconds," replied Lyle. "You have to be patient, Kara. Things always take longer if you have to do them covertly."

That had sounded like a line from another old movie, but Kara wasn't in the mood to try to call it up from memory. She just wanted to see Alex come flying over the nearest hill so she would know the other girl was safe.

Her strength fully restored, Kara wondered about lifting into the air above the spaceship. That wouldn't technically entail getting any closer to the cavern where the Eye was located. If she climbed to a thousand feet, she should be able to see over the intervening terrain all the way to the distant cavern entrance. It was only ten miles and she knew she wouldn't have any problem zooming in on the cave entrance. If she did that, she could see the instant Alex exited it and give Lyle a head's up. Surely that would be a prudent precaution given the potential danger. Still, she probably should clear it with Lyle, so she didn't end up pissing him off.

"Ah, Lyle, do you see any problem if I were to fly up to say a thousand feet, as long as I stay directly over the ship? That wouldn't bring me any closer to the Eye, but would allow me to keep watch for when Alex reemerges from the cavern."

"Ah, I guess that would be okay," replied Lyle after a couple of seconds. "But keep an eye out for flying predators; we don't want to attract them to our immediate area."

"Okay, great," said Kara. By the time the words were out of her mouth, she was already over a hundred feet above the ship and rapidly climbing; she didn't want the boy to change his mind before she got a good look around. The holographic map had given her a rough feel for the area, but it still didn't compare to looking things over with your own eyes.

It was sort of exciting flying here, she quickly decided. Back in Midvale, she could only risk flying at night to reduce the chances of anyone seeing her. And she rarely had a reason to fly this high. So flying high and in daytime were both relative novelties.

Since this wasn't something she did often, she wasn't great at estimating her altitude. But the surrounding hills seemed to be taller than she had guessed from looking at the map. She was certain she was closer to two thousand feet above the ship before she was able to see what felt like ten miles in the direction of the cavern.

Even though she had a rough idea of where to look, at a range of ten miles it left a lot of potential locations for the entrance. It took her almost five minutes of scanning to spot it. And then it wasn't quite what she had been expecting. The entrance seemed far too regular and rectangular to be a natural feature. Then she realized the two large rock outcroppings at each side of the entrance were actually overgrown statues. The entire thing looked decidedly manmade, or whatever the correct term was for something built by an alien race.

She was tempted to scan the area with her x-ray vision, but then thought better. If Lyle was worried about the Eye noticing the electro-magnetic emissions of the ship, then it was even more likely to notice a powerful x-ray pulse from her - not that she was even certain if that was how her x-ray vision worked. Was she just able to see in the x-ray range, or did her eyes produce a pulse of x-rays to illuminate things like how bats emitted high frequency sounds to paint their surroundings? There was so much she still didn't understand about how her gifts worked. But this was definitely an occasion for a _better safe than sorry_ approach.

However she decided the risk of using her x-ray vision should be low as long as she was looking at least ninety degrees away from the entrance to the underground facility where the Eye was located. She scanned off to her left and right. Everywhere she looked, she saw the ruins of a vast city beneath the overlying jungle. She had never been to the jungles of Central America, but she had seen documentaries on TV about how archeologists used aerial radar sweeps of tropical jungles to find evidence of long lost Indian civilizations.

Then, whether it was something in her peripheral vision or some sixth sense, she abruptly flicked her gaze back to the distant entrance to the underground complex. She was just in time to see the green exo-suit Alex was wearing come sweeping out at high speed and then abruptly rotate in mid-air and begin firing energy bolts back towards the entrance.

Nearly simultaneously, Lyle shouted through her earpiece, "Kara, we need to go. You need to get back onboard NOW!"

But Kara didn't even consider returning to the ship. Alex was obviously in trouble and she had to help.

"I have to help Alex," Kara shouted in reply as she raced forward, driving herself even harder than when she had had to race to save Alex from Sheriff Collins.

A whole stream of some kind of creatures was emerging from the opening, even as Alex continued firing at it. They were green and definitely larger than the suited Alex. It took a moment before Kara realized they looked like giant versions of Earth flies. They hadn't had any insects quite like those back on Krypton and they were rare in Midvale. Then she remembered Lyle's description of the planet's major predators. These had to be a variation of the Dralgo he had mentioned, although those were supposed to have orange bodies and pink wings while these were completely green.

As Kara approached, it was obvious Alex was mostly ignoring them other than dodging left and right to avoid being hit by them and was instead aiming her fire at the upper edge of the opening. It took only a second for Kara to reach the conclusion the other girl was trying to collapse the entrance. What could be coming that was even worse than the creatures already buzzing around, she wondered. Then she realized the flies were still steadily streaming forth; there had to be thirty out in the open by now, so Alex might just be trying to block the entrance to prevent even more of them getting out into the open.

As soon as she thought she was close enough, Kara added her heat vision to the suit's energy bolts. Actually, her fear had been jacking steadily up and it had been hard to keep from letting her heat vision loose too soon. But now, under their combined onslaught, the roof of the chamber quickly collapsed in, blocking the exit and the stream of creatures. Of course, that still left the near forty that had already emerged.

Kara could start to feel the effect of Alex's Kryptonite suit as soon as she approached within seventy-five feet. Therefore she quickly backed away. But as she moved, she wasn't paying enough attention to her surroundings and one of the giant flies smashed into her from the back. She went hurtling through the air in a direction away from Alex. Then she was hit again and then a third time. It was happening so fast she didn't have time to recover.

While she was still careening helplessly around the sky, another of the creatures came straight at her from the front. She knew Alex was off in another direction, so she directed the full force of her heat vision towards it. The creature began to glow an even brighter green for a few seconds and then simply shimmered and disappeared. No gore. No rain of body parts. It simply vanished. It wasn't at all what Kara had been expecting when she hit it with her heat vision.

But rather than wasting time trying to figure out what it meant, Kara turned her heat vision to the next nearest creature. It, too, shimmered and disappeared after only a couple of seconds. Quickly, Kara targeted the remaining creatures as fast as she could turn her head and focus her heat vision.

Alex was simultaneously blasting others with the suit's lightning weapon. In less than a minute, all of the creatures were gone.

"Alex, are you okay?" called Kara while maintaining a one hundred foot gap from the other girl. She assumed either Alex would hear her through the communicator or the suit could pick up her voice.

"Yeah," replied Alex through her earpiece. She sounded a little short of breath. "I made it to the Eye and touched it, but nothing seemed to happen. I had just given up and was getting ready to retreat to the ship when I was attacked."

"What were these things?" asked Kara. "The way they just shimmered and vanished when I hit them with my heat vision, they weren't like any creature I've ever seen."

"They appeared to be some kind of energy constructs created by the Eye," replied a new voice over the channel. "And I don't think we better hang around to see what it tries next."

Alex began racing away in the direction towards where the ship had been. Kara automatically started to follow. It took a moment for her to realize the new voice had to belong to the suit.

It couldn't have been more than five seconds later when there was a titanic explosion behind them. If they had been on the ground, it definitely would have knocked them off their feet. As it was, it sent the two girls careening through the air.

When Kara managed to glance back, she saw something huge emerging from the ground beyond the cavern entrance by simple brute force. Like the artificial Dralgo, this was also green, but it was far, far bigger. She simply hovered in the air staring at it as more and more of it emerged.

"Kara, we've got to go!" screamed Alex through the communicator.

Kara just continued to stare. It was the scariest thing she could imagine. It was a flame dragon and no way could it be here.

Flame Dragons were native to Krypton and they were the biggest, baddest alpha predators on the planet. They were six hundred feet long, could fly at three times the speed of sound, and their flaming breath could burn through a foot thick Kryptonium barrier – the hardest, densest material found on Krypton.

Then a second one began to emerge from the ground.

"Holy Shit, holy shit, holy shit!" whispered Kara. And that seemed to be enough to break her paralysis. She turned and raced away.

"Alex, they're flame dragons. We have to get out of here."

"What the hell are flame dragons?"

"They were the biggest predators on Krypton. I saw one once on an excursion with my father. You wouldn't believe the amount of protection that is required to get within a mile of the creatures. They super-fast and their dragon fire will burn straight through almost anything. I have no idea how a pair of them could be here." Kara knew she was almost babbling, but she couldn't help herself. Flame dragons were simply the scariest thing she could imagine.

"They are not real," explained Buffy in an annoyingly calm voice. "They are just another energy construct of the Eye. Remember how the Eye can subvert a person's mind? Well, it must have read your mind and knew this was one of the things you fear the most."

The lead dragon was still at least a mile behind them, but it released a belch of green fire in their direction. Instantly, a wide swath of the jungle burst into flames.

"The dragon fire looks perfectly real to me," shouted Kara. She put on another burst of speed as adrenaline coursed through her system however the dragons still seemed to be gaining on them.

They continued to race forward. They reached the spot where Kara was certain the ship had been, but it was nowhere in sight.

"Lyle, where are you?" shouted Kara. "We have flame dragons on our tail and we need to get out of here now!"

"I needed to try to get out of range of the Eye. While it was dormant, ten miles seemed like an adequate precaution. But it didn't seem like enough now that it is definitely awake. I'm currently a hundred miles ahead and still accelerating away."

"At my best speed," interjected Buffy, "The flame dragons will overtake us before we can reach the ship."

"Then I'll have to try to slow them down while you and Alex get clear," said Kara determinedly.

"Your odds are much better if you take Alex and I run interference," stated Buffy calmly.

"How are we supposed to manage that?" asked Kara. "If we stop long enough for Alex to get out of the suit and then for you to get far enough clear that I can approach her, they will definitely be on us."

"I can eject Alex while in mid-air. You just need to catch her."

"What?!" screamed Alex. Buffy was proposing to just dump her into freefall?

"I'm ejecting her in three . . . two . . . one."

The front of the suit hinged open and Alex tumbled out. Buffy hadn't even slowed to a stop and she was left tumbling wildly through the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the suit seal back up and then arc into a hard turn and head directly back in the direction of the flame dragons.

Alex was tempted to curl up in a tight ball, but forced her arms and legs out until she was spread-eagle. She had been barely two hundred feet above the trees when Buffy had kicked her out and she needed to use her body to slow her rate of descent as much as possible to give Kara time to reach her.

Kara had pulled slightly ahead of the suit and was well over three hundred feet away when Buffy had made her abrupt announcement. She had barely begun to turn back when Alex was sent tumbling through the air. At least, she had the other girl in sight and didn't have to waste time searching for her.

Kara raced back even as the flame dragons continued to race forward. It was going to be close, especially since she couldn't grab Alex while moving at full speed without potentially killing her in the process.

Even though Alex was still tumbling, her spread-eagle position had slowed it enough that Kara managed to swoop in and wrap both arms around her sister's chest and pulled Alex's back tight against her front. Then she raced off to the side as fast as she could force herself to move. They would have been within range of the flame dragons' fire within three seconds and she couldn't have come to a complete stop and then gotten headed back on course in that amount of time.

Making a long sweeping turn allowed Kara to keep an eye on the suit and the dragons. The suit headed straight towards the nearer one and launched lightning bolts and a plethora of other weapons in its direction. But it was like a gnat going up against a flamethrower. The dragon fire swept forward and engulfed the suit. And it was gone.

Kara got herself pointed towards where she thought the ship would be located and forced herself to fly as fast as she could. At first, even that didn't seem like it would be enough to get away from the dragons. But then she remembered Clark once explaining how he could shift his time perspective when he needed to go even faster and how he had once crossed the entire width of the United States in under three seconds when he had had to stop a nuclear missile launched by Lex Luthor.

She had no idea how Clark had done it, but she had no idea how she could fly normally either. So she just tried reaching deep inside herself and willed it to happen. And just like that she was accelerating at a seemingly impossible rate. In less than two seconds, the flame dragons had been left so far behind their six hundred foot bulks had dwindled into complete invisibility.

She was grinning madly even though it seemed inappropriate after the Kryptonite suit had willingly sacrificed itself to let her and Alex get clear. But, damn, she had never realized she could fly this fast.

Then she abruptly began worrying that she would overshoot the ship. Quickly, she turned her attention forward and used her powerful telescopic vision. The ship would have been difficult to spot except its great speed compared to its surroundings made it stand out clearly.

"Lyle, we'll reach the ship in a couple of seconds. Can you open the door?"

And almost before the words were out of her mouth, she had caught up to the still accelerating ship and was flying in formation a bare five feet from where the door should appear.

A couple of seconds later, the door opened and Kara maneuvered inside. The entrance had morphed from the previous times they had used it. Now a small chamber was located on the inside. Once she and Alex were inside, the outer door closed and then the new inner door began to open. Of course, she immediately realized, Lyle couldn't let the outside air, which was flowing by the ship at thousands of miles per hour, blast directly into the interior, so he had configured an airlock.

"Alex, are you okay?" Kara asked as soon as she lowered her to the floor and released the grip she had been maintaining.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for catching me," Alex replied while she turned around.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Kara, her eyes going wide.

"What?" demanded Alex, a sudden jolt of fear passing through her as Kara's eyes darted back and forth.

"Your hair . . . your eyes."

Alex grabbed her hair and pulled it forward. It was mostly its usual brown, but one streak was a brilliant blue.

"What about my eyes?"

"They're . . . they're the same shade of blue as the streak in your hair."

Alex's eyes had always been brown.


	9. Chapter 9

The Midvale Girls

 _The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers_

Metamorphosis

Chapter 9

Brainy stared at the display on the small handheld device for a few more seconds before raising his gaze to meet Alex's eyes. "As indicated by your hair and eyes, it appears you and Salu have somehow become merged."

They had arrived back at the Clubhouse from their trip to Venegar barely ten minutes earlier. Neither Lyle nor the Triplicate Girls had had any idea what was happening to Alex, so she had immediately turned to Brainiac 5.

"What does that mean?" asked Alex. "I thought she was supposed to be small enough to fit into one of my cells and once we were well clear of the Emerald Eye of Ekron, she would simply exit my body and then return to full-size."

Brainy shrugged. "I have no explanation for it. Do you sense her presence? Do you feel any changes besides the visible ones?"

Alex thought about it for a few seconds before shaking her head. "No. I feel just the same as always." That wasn't exactly true. Although she had interacted with the kryptonite suit for less than an hour, Buffy had already started to feel like a friend. It was hard to believe the suit was gone, destroyed by the energy-construct versions of Kryptonian Flame Dragons. She definitely had a strong sense of loss - almost grief, but that had nothing to do with the question of Shrinking Violet.

"Well, even if you have no sense of her, you may still have acquired her gift. I suggest you try and shrink yourself," replied Brainy.

"How would I do that?" asked Alex, her tone almost hostile and her newly blue eyes flashing. The Legion's whole reason for bringing her to the 31st Century had been to go to Venegar to retrieve Salu Digby. She had gone to Venegar and it had been a lot harder and scarier than Lyle and Brainiac had indicated. Now she just wanted to go back home to her simple life in the Midvale of the 21st Century.

"I don't know. Just try imagining yourself shrinking?"

Alex had no idea how imagining herself shrinking would simply make it happen. But the sooner she did it, the sooner she could go home.

She tried mentally shouting _'Shrink',_ as though it was a magic word like ' _abracadabra_ ', but nothing happened. She pictured herself the size of a sugar cube, but again nothing happened.

She was getting ready to give up when she suddenly remembered flying in the Kryptonite suit. It had seemed totally effortless like she didn't even need to try. So she tried thinking about shrinking in the same way she had been able to fly – thinking but not really _thinking_ about it.

And suddenly Brainy seemed to be getting taller and taller until he was ten feet tall . . . then forty feet tall . . . and then a hundred feet tall . . . and finally he passed a thousand feet tall and no longer looked like a person but rather just an infinitely tall wall of lavender cloth. It definitely felt like everything around her was getting bigger rather than herself getting smaller.

'' _Hello?'_ she heard a voice call timidly. It seemed to emanate from within her head rather than something she was hearing with her ears.

' _Salu? Salu Digby?'_ Alex mentally called.

' _Who . . . who are you?_ ' replied the voice tremulously.

' _My name is Alex . . . Alex Danvers. I'm from the 21_ _st_ _Century. Brainy's Improbability Engine said I was the only one who could rescue you from the Emerald Eye of Ekron, so the Legion recruited me. Now you seem to be stuck in my body. Do you know how to get clear of me?'_

' _I have no idea how I got here,_ ' Salu replied. _'One second I was trapped in the Eye and the next I was here.'_

Alex had hoped for a better answer from the girl. Well, at least Salu was alive and here. If they could figure out how to separate the two of them, then she would be free to go home to the 21st Century. _'I'm going to go back to full-size and then maybe Brainy can help us.'_

' _Okay_ ,' replied the small voice.

Alex used the same mental trick she had used to shrink herself to enlarge back to full-size. Of course, the action felt just the opposite as everything around her seemed to shrink to her size rather than she herself getting larger.

It only took a fraction of a second and suddenly she was standing right in front of Brainiac 5 while Kara stood to her left and Lyle stood to her right.

' _Salu are you still with me?'_ asked Alex. When she didn't get an immediate reply she asked again, _'Salu?'_ Nothing.

"Wow, Alex, you did it!" exclaimed Kara. "What was it like?"

Alex abruptly realized she had been so focused on Salu that she hadn't even really thought about being a tiny, miniature version of herself. Perhaps if she had encountered some scary ant that felt twenty feet tall relative to her like in some old low-budget horror/sci-fi movie, it would have made a bigger impression.

"That's not important now," replied Alex before turning her attention back to Brainy.

"Brainy, while I was shrunk, I could hear Salu in my mind. She didn't seem to have any idea how she got merged with me or how to undo it. So I returned to full-size to get your input, but now I can no longer hear her."

"Really? That's interesting," mused Brainiac 5.

"Do you see any way around this situation? I don't want to have to shrink and then enlarge to pass messages between you and Salu."

"Well, instead of shrinking until you are microscopic-sized, perhaps you only need to shrink a little. Can you shrink until you are 99% of your normal size? At that size no one is going to notice anything different about you, but it still might be enough to let you interact with Salu."

Perhaps Brainy really was smart, thought Alex. That idea had never occurred to her.

She again thought of shrinking, but only a little. She overshot and Brainy seemed like he was eight feet tall. She tried to correct and overshot back to full-size. It took several more attempts, boomeranging up and down in size, until she felt she was only slightly smaller than normal.

"Wow, Alex," exclaimed Kara once Alex's size had stabilized. "You're almost making me dizzy."

"Try it from my perspective," Alex quipped back before turning her attention inward.

' _Salu, can you hear me?_ ' asked Alex.

' _Yes,_ ' the other girl replied immediately.

' _Can you see and hear the others?_ '

' _Yes, although I don't know the girl standing next to you,_ ' answered Salu.

' _That's Kara, my sister. She's Supergirl._ '

' _Your sister is Supergirl? Cool._ '

Alex turned her attention back outward. "Brainy, you were right. When I'm just slightly smaller than normal, I can communicate with Salu. And she can see and hear you, but I guess I will have to pass along what she says. Now, do you have any more bright ideas? Like how to separate us?"

Brainiac 5 shook his head. "Not at the moment. Let me take another scan of you now while you are using Salu's shrinking ability to see if that tells us anything."

Alex held still while Brainy again ran the small handheld device up and down in front of her. Once he was finished, he spent nearly a minute studying its display.

"I can detect a few slight differences compared to the previous scan when you were full-sized, but I don't yet have any idea how to use that to separate the two of you. I'm afraid you are going to be stuck with each other for at least awhile."

After dropping the device on the workbench located directly behind him, he turned back to Alex. "And I'm afraid the situation with Mongul has become more urgent. While you were on Venegar, he broke through the protective barrier the other Legionnaires had been trying to erect. Rather than the three days I thought we had, he will be here in less than eight hours. Since our other attempts to stop him have failed, Alex, you and Salu are our last hope. You are going to have to infiltrate his command planetoid and disable or gain control of the Sun-eater controller Mongul possesses. The future of planet Earth is depending on you."

"But . . . but you said all I had to do was go to Venegar and then I could go home." Even Alex could hear the pathetic whine in her voice, but she couldn't help herself. The trip to Venegar had sounded a lot easier than going up against someone who had destroyed at least a half dozen stars and must have countless lethal weapons and hordes of fanatical minions. Stopping Mongul definitely sounded like a job for someone with experience, not for someone who a bare five hours earlier had thought she was merely getting to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Metropolis as a brief respite from her boring life in Midvale. But suddenly a boring life sounded like a wonderful idea.

' _Alex, we have to do this,_ ' whispered Salu, however her ethereal voice didn't sound any more enthused than Alex felt. ' _The fate of the world is resting in our hands._ '

' _I thought you have been missing on Venegar since before this current situation arose,_ ' replied Alex. ' _How do you know what is going on?_ '

' _I don't, but I'm sure you or Brainy can fill me in._ '

' _I wish I was half as brave as you,_ ' answered Alex.

' _I'm not that brave, ask anyone. I had to work really hard to overcome my shyness and get accepted into the Legion. And I've been scared to death several times since joining, but I forced myself to not freeze and do my part. I'm sure you can, too, Alex._ '

Alex hated the thought of the fate of billions of people resting on her shoulders. But she knew she would feel even worse if she did nothing and they all died.

"Fine, Brainy. I suppose I have to at least try," said Alex with a sigh. "What do I have to do?'

Brainy grinned. "Excellent. First, I have a small gift for you and Kara. You will need yours for the mission and Kara might find hers useful, too."

He turned back to his workbench and opened a cabinet mounted to the wall above the work surface. From it, he pulled out a pair of small objects and handed one to Alex and the other to Kara. "These are Legion Flight rings. They allow our members to fly who don't have a natural ability. Kara, you will find it useful when you are under the influence of a red sun like now."

Alex looked at the ring in her hand. Gold and about the size of a boy's class ring, it was definitely bigger and bulkier than the rings she normally wore. The top surface was engraved with a stylized capital L, which she assumed stood for the Legion of Superheroes. She tried various fingers and it seemed to fit best on the middle finger of her right hand.

She mentally thought of lifting six inches in the air the same way she had interacted with the kryptonite suit. Immediately, she lifted off the ground. She was glad she wouldn't have to master a new technique.

Then she looked over at Kara. She, too, was hovering above the floor. Of course, Kara would instantly master the ability to use the flying ring without all the effort it had taken her to master flying. But then Kara had several years of experience flying and Brainiac had previously interacted with Superboy, so he was probably better able to tune the ring to work with a Kryptonian from the 21st Century than a human from the 21st Century.

"Okay, I'm glad to see you both can fly without any more training," said Brainy. "Now, since neither of you are probably going to be full time members of the Legion, I've added an extra feature to your rings – a concept I've borrowed from The Flash's ring."

"The Flash?" asked Kara and Alex nodded her concurrence with the question.

"Oh, he's a Superhero you haven't met yet. I don't think he makes his first appearance until a few months or maybe a few years after the day when Lyle pulled you from the 21st Century. I don't want to go into any more detail that might force us to wipe your memories before you can return home like we had to do with Superboy."

"Definitely don't say any more on that topic, I don't want you messing with my memories," said Alex with vehemence. Even though she was curious about The Flash's superpower – something to do with fire or lightning she guessed - she didn't want to risk losing her memories of her father, if something went wrong with the memory wipe procedure.

"Anyway, The Flash came up with a method of storing his superhero costume in a ring. If you were going to be full-time Legionnaires, you could wear your costume all the time like most of us. But I assume when you get home you will want to wear civilian attire most of the time. This will allow you to have your superhero costumes with you at all times in case you need it. Now my method is different from The Flash's and involves what you would call nanotech and holograms back in your era, but it achieves a similar effect. You should see a button on the side of the ring. Press it once to switch into your costume and press it again to change back into your regular clothes. You might as well try it now." When Brainy finished talking, he must have done something they couldn't see, as a large section of the wall behind him suddenly turned into a large mirror.

Both girls turned so they were more fully facing the mirror. It took Alex only a moment to spot the slightly recessed button on the side of the ring. She shared a glance with Kara and when the other girl nodded, they both pressed their buttons simultaneously.

A colored mist poured out of the rings. The mist from Kara's ring was red, white, blue, and yellow. The mist from Alex's ring was blue, purple, green, and black. It swept out until they were both completely obscured for about three seconds and while it happened, Alex's skin tingled all over. When the mist cleared, their appearances had been completely altered.

Kara was wearing a short white crop top with a large red S on the front in the familiar diamond shape from Superman's costume. A red cape hung down her back, but it stopped just below her waist rather than extending all the way to the floor like Superman's . A very short blue miniskirt was wrapped around her waist, short white gloves covered her hands, and red boots adorned her legs almost up to her knees.

However, the more startling change was her hair. Normally light brown, it was now a very bright yellowish-blonde. And it streamed out behind her head as though she was flying a hundred miles an hour rather than simply standing there. The effect was so unnatural it seemed to command Alex's entire attention and made it almost impossible to focus on the other girl's face.

Then Alex turned her attention from Kara's reflection to her own. Her outfit was equally short, but at least it didn't leave her stomach exposed since she had merely human abs rather than the impossible Kryptonian ones. The outfit was mostly green with purple highlights. And while the skirt was extremely short, it surprisingly had full length green sleeves and black gloves reaching almost to the elbow and matching the black knee-high boots.

But like with Kara, the most startling thing about her appearance was her hair. Or rather, in her case, what had been substituted for hair – violets. A giant mass of small purply-blue flowers extended down to a little below her shoulders like her real hair would, but these didn't just lay there like hair. No, they were constantly in motion like each of the five hundred blossoms was able to move independently. After watching it for a few seconds, the first thought that popped into Alex's head was the snakes the legendary Greek monster Medusa had in place of hair. Hopefully, just looking at her wouldn't turn people to stone.

It took a real effort to force her gaze away from the writhing mass of flowers and on to her face. Her complexion was now an almost chalky white. Her mouth was adorned with lipstick such a dark shade of burgundy to be effectively black. And her eyes were surrounded with heavy purply-blue eye shadow the same color as the flowers. She barely recognized herself.

"Since I assume you don't want anyone to recognize you when you are doing superhero things or figuring out who you are to potentially disrupt your normal lives, I tried to come up with something distracting that wouldn't require wearing a mask, which always struck me as downright lame," stated Brainiac, seeming to have read Alex's most recent thoughts.

"This certainly seems to do the trick," replied Alex, as she pulled her gaze away from her own reflection and looked back at Kara's. Her streaming blonde hair also managed to make it difficult to focus on the other girl's face.

When she did manage to see past the hair, Kara's face looked subtly different. It seemed like her cheekbones were more pronounced, her nose looked slightly slimmer, and her eyes were more silver than blue. And then there was the other girl's lips, they were now a shade of pink she had never seen before. The color, all by itself, suddenly made her yearn to run her fingers across them or maybe her lips or tongue. It was insane that mere pink lipstick could have that effect. And if they had that effect on her, another girl, she had to wonder what effect that lipstick would have on men. Brainiac's special effects had to be doing something more than just altering their appearance when they were in costume.

Between the costume, the wild hair and the facial changes, if she didn't know it was Kara, she wouldn't have recognized her even though she had seen Kara every day for the last two years.

' _Wow, Brainy must really like you two,_ ' whispered Salu within Alex's head. ' _He has never gone to that much bother for me or anyone else._ '

Before Alex had time to grasp what Salu might be implying, her thoughts were interrupted by Brainiac 5.

"Okay, Alex, now that that is out of the way, I think it is time I brief you and Salu about the mission. The clock is ticking and we don't have all day to stare at a mirror," said Brainy.


End file.
